This is a Premier Royal Ace snare drum in black marine pearl finish, manufactured in England in the mid 1960s. This snare drum came to me in Stonehaven in 2018, as part of a matching kit.
I spotted the kit for sale on Facebook Marketplace. The single photograph was blurry and didn’t give much away, so I took a bit of a risk, travelling up to Stonehaven with my fingers and toes crossed. Everything turned-out fine! The lovely gentleman who sold it to me explained that it used to belong to his late father. When he opened the hand-made wooden case on the pavement in the car park, the kit was IMMACULATE, and included a matching pair of 6″ and 8″ bongos, various cymbals, and beautiful chrome hardware (more on these items later!)
One of the cymbals that came with the kit turned-out to be a 1960s 20″ Paiste Formula 602 Joe Morello Signature Ride Cymbal. I played it a few times, but it sounded too smooth and warm for my taste, so I sold it to a collector – the profit from this cymbal alone paid for the entire kit. GET IN!
So I cleaned up my <free> black pearl drum kit and snare drum, set it up in our tuition studio and taught drums with it for a year in 2018.
Covid hit in 2020, musicians (and everyone else) across the world had to adapt to lockdowns and social distancing. Live music was prohibited. My wife and I set up a room in our home with live-streaming hardware, and the black marine pearl kit was played every Friday night during lockdown, with audiences tuning-in from all over the world.
In 2020, I recorded a tribute to Radiohead’s second album: The Bends, in which I play the kit and snare drum and uploaded the videos to Youtube, amassing thousands of views and engagement from fans worldwide.
My beautiful wee boy was born on 2021, and the kit remained set-up in our music room, so the snare drum was the first he was able to play… and boy did he play! That room is now a play/chill/spare room, and my boy has his own junior drum kit set up in it.
In 2023 I played the kit for The Science Fiction Rock Experience, however, the snare drum stayed at home, in favour of my Aluminium 101 Resonator Snare Drum (stay tuned for more on that snare drum).
The snare mechanism currently requires attention as it releases itself when the drum is struck with any force. I will repair it as soon as I can!
I can only wonder what and where this snare drum got up to before it fell into my hands – do you perhaps recognise it?
Stay-tuned for stories behind all my snare drums, as I embrace my geeky sentimentality!
Peace, Love & Drums –
Scott
Matching Bongos 
Strip-down & Clean 
Red P Badge slightly faded 
Recording Studio 2018 
Falkland Estate 2019 
Recoding Session 2019 
Recording Session 2018 
Covid Livestreams 2020 
Drum Lessons 2021 
1990s APK and 1960s Royal Ace 
When Worlds Collide Music Stage Show 2023 
The Science Fiction Rock Experience 2023