Has Premier made other Shells than the Resonator in the 70s??? :D

Howya,

All the Resonator series is is the standard Premier shell of the time with an inner liner. The jury is out as to whether or not that was actually an improvement or not! Personally my preference is without the liners. Here's my very early 70s 18/14/12 in Silver Star ...

Spart

Without the liners this would be an Elite from late 1970s onward given the spurs and tom holder. The liners are just a single ply sheet sprung into place and pop out easily - Resonators had a little extra badge tacked on too. I would say this is as it was built - an Elite and very nice too

Hey man, thanks for the confirmation. I was looking at the catalogs and was not shure if the Elite shells has been without the inner liners. Great :D!. So i only found an ink stamp in the 12x8 that says 833. at sonor this would mean that the set was buld in week 33 of 1978. Is this the same with premier?

Best wishes :D

S.

Wow. Dazzling.

yeah, your silver set is amazing!!!!! :D mine is not in that good condition!

That silver kit is nice.

Funny thing about certain kits in these "bop" sizes....

IF it was a Gretsch bop kit and was in excellent condition, then it could be worth over $10K easily.

IF it was a 60's Ludwig Jazzette in perfect shape, then you could probably name your price on it, too.

But, the Premier kits will never command the kind of money that a vintage American kit will...no matter what kind of shape it's in. If it's been altered at all, then it's only going to be worth what someone will pay for it.

The Resonators weren't a particularly successful line for Premier, either. They were really heavy and an extra pain in the ass to move around. I went on tour with a purple Resonator kit years ago. I hated moving them. They sounded...meh.

They were successful enough to be around 20 years and made it through the Yamaha era. But I agree that they'll never go for the same as the American brands. I love my Premiers but the resale value sucks.

I love some Premiers, too. I didn't realize the Resonator line lasted that many years. The shells were just SO massive and heavy.

It appears to be a Resonator set with the liners removed. This is common because once assembled, there is no way to tighten the fitting on a Resonator. When they inevitably worked loose, the liners had to be removed to get at the screws to tighten the fitting. Many liners never found their way back inside their shells.

The liners are 2-ply birch and are sprung inside a normal Elite shell, contacting only the re-rings. They are not glued and are held in only by the seams opposing pressure. This also lead to liners slipping downward towards the reso heads. It was a troubled design and the consensus seems to be that they sound better with the liners removed.