was the premier HTS700 available without the lower ring for the tension rods?I have what I think is a 700 by all accounts,but it does not have the lower rod ring.Everything else is the same.THe drum has a white wrapped finish.But has no ser# on it anywhere.THe strainer mechs look identicle to those on what I know is a 700.

The lower stabilizing ring came stock on every HTS 700. Maybe you have a prior model like the HTS 200? There's a picture of an HTS 200 on the upper right of this page.

back in the early years of Premier Free Floaters, they didnt have the lower ring. You would have to actually push the rods sometimes to get the lugs into the post. It was an early issue(besides the 100 little parts to the strainer) Early models didnt even have a throw off. If was just 2 butt plates you cold lower and raise via twist nuts (which ALWAYS fell off)

Later in the 90's they added the throw off. Cheap plastic and would also lose parts. I still love the sound of the THIN premier shells from that era. Throw a tendura (cybermax) and a flam bottom and you got a great sounding snare drum.

You probably have yourself and older premier

If he's got an HTS 200 or 700, he won't have a throwoff since those are pipe band models. Pretty much the same drum, but with two butt plates, wire snares, and a top snare.

I'm not the world's foremost authority on Premier drums, but I've cobbled together some pics of "pre-lower-ring" premier marching snares. There are three models in the pic:

• The HTS 200 (bottom left) is the pipe band snare.
• The HTS 284 (right) is the older drum corps & marching band snare.
• The HTS 484 (top center) is the newer drum corps & marching band snare with a throwoff.

Don't pay much attention to the Premier logo decals in the picture. Premier has changed their logo a few times and you can find different logo styles on the same model drum.

The HTS 200 pipe band drum was succeeded by the HTS 700, which had the lower stabilizing ring. The HTS 484 corps-style snare was replaced by the HTS 784, which had the lower ring.

thank you all for the replies. It is indeed a hts 200.
Would any of you know if there is a modern carrier vest that will hold this drum? I have a Randall May for my Yamaha MTS ,but I cannot fit the clamps between the tension rods and the shell.the tubes are much larger than any of the current pipe drums -the hts 700/800 and the new pearl fxxp.
Any suggestions?

Any of the XL Specialty hardware that clamps to the tension ring instead of the posts will work with your drum. XL Specialty sells carriers and hardware under their own name, as well as Mapex, Premier, and Ludwig. Carriers from any of those brands should work, except maybe Ludwig. (Ludwig's free-floating snares have tilters attached to the drum, so Ludwig carriers may not come with the mounting bracket you'd need.)

HERE is the Mapex-branded version of an XL snare attachment, and you could potentially buy just that piece and use it with another carrier. But of course there's a catch: XL uses steel j-bars that are a smaller diameter than the aluminum ones used by Randall May or Dynasty. You would need to make modifications (like maybe bigger j-bar receiver tubes) to use a RM carrier.

Before resorting to that... It may not be possible to slide the clamp around a tension post on your Premier drum because the clearance between the post and shell is too small, but is it possible to slide it up from the bottom? I remember running into something similar with some other mounting hardware before -- old Pearl stuff, maybe?

Another option would be to buy Dynasty tilters (see attached image) and bolt them to the shell. You'd be able to use your RM carrier. Tilters will run you about $35-40 from a Dynasty dealer. The drawback here is that you would need to drill the shell and mount hardware directly to it.

ugh...drilling into the shell feels all wrong.I think I will seriously look into the XL carrier.Thanks alot for the info.It is really hard to get this stuff in Canada without getting bent over and abused with the price.
Shane.

I will take the drum apart and see about sliding it up from the bottom.Even if I can get another adapter from R/M and file them down for clearance, that might actually work.

There are plenty of U.S. dealers that will ship stuff to Canada. (I believe Woodwind & Brasswind and Steve Weiss both do.) You may get stuck paying duty, but sometimes that's better than paying some Canadian retailers' prices!



Speaking of getting bent over and reamed when it comes to prices... Pearl snare attachments start around $115 USD and I'd be shocked if the Yamaha one was less expensive. If I needed to buy an attachment and modify it, I'd go with the Mapex one.

For less than the cost of a Pearl/RM snare attachment, you could buy the Mapex attachment and Dynasty tilters. Swap the tubes from the Dynasty tilters onto the Mapex snare attachment and it'll take your RM carrier.

Musicians Friend, and Guitar center do as well also Music123 and ZZSounds. if you spend over 100 at Musicians friend you get free shipping!

Good news: I bought a Mapex XXTSA attachment for my own snare drum and it turns out the tubes are juuust big enough to accept RM j-bars. It's a tight fit, but they'll slide in.

Thanks for the info & pic Skydog.That helps alot.

If you want to use RM j-bars with a Mapex XXTSA or similar XL Specialty attachment, you may end up grinding the j-bars a little bit. (Or swap bigger tubes onto the carrier attachment.) I could slide one in, but had a tough time getting both hooks to slide in when mounted on a carrier. It's such a tight fit they have to go in exactly straight and it was really hard to get them aligned straight enough on the carrier.

After a little more fiddling with the Mapex XXTSA attachment, I decided to return it. The attachment itself was fine, but the j-bars I have available positioned the drum too far away from the player's body. The school I teach has a Ludwig/XL xylo carrier with short j-bars that would've been perfect, but the old XL snare j-bars and Ludwig/Hadley j-bars I had on hand were a little long.

So instead, I put some old Ludwig tilters on the drum (yes, I drilled it) and it works perfectly with my XL j-bars. I mounted the tilters the same distance apart as on a Dynasty drum, so my high school line's Dynasty carriers will fit as well.

Sorry about the revival, but I just got a Mapex drum and had some questions about that adapter. How exactly does it attach to the drum? I see in the pictures that it has two bolts on it that would look to be set screws. I can't see that being very good for the ring on the drum that it mounts to let alone I don't think it would be very reliable. Could you shed some light on this?

I have the HTS 784 Premier and tried your tuning which worked very well! Then I replaced the Cybermax with the Evans Grey Hybrid and it sounds even better. I know these are not popular from a maintanience point of view but they really sound good! I`m pretty sure this was the drum used by the Crossmen and Star in the 90`s and I can see why! This drum has the lower ring.

Anyone know of where I'd be able to get an HTS 784 throw off, or anyone wanting to get rid of one?

I found a whole snare set for the 784 on EBAY. All snares in great condition. I don`t know if he has it but you might ask Bryantsnugglebunnyª^townsfallspercussion.com and his address is

FALLS MUSIC COMPANY
1275 Bloomfield Ave
Fairfield NJ 07004