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John Bonham's drum setup?


93ZoSo93

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How did he tune his drums? Did he use any moon gel or stuff a duvet into the bass drum? Or did he just let it all ring out? I'm curious about his full setup, and the sticks he used...

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Bonham had 4 main Ludwig kits that he used live.

-Thermo Gloss Maple (used from 1969-1970)

-Green Sparkle (used from 1970-1973)

-Amber Vistalite (used from 1973-1975)

-Stainless Steel (used from 1977-1980)

Generally, this was Bonham's complete set up (even though it can be found on the internet widely):

Drums:

6.5"x14" Ludwig LM402 Supraphonic Snare Drum

10x14" (or 12"x14" [on his Maple drums] or 12"x15" [on his Stainless Steel drums] Rack Tom

16"x16" Floor Tom

16"x18" Floor Tom

14"x26" Bass Drum (he used two of these for a few shows)

Cymbals:

From 1968-1971:

Paiste Giant Beat Multipurpose 18" Cymbal

Paiste Giant Beat Multipurpose 20" Cymbal

Paiste Giant Beat Multipurpose 24" Cymbal

Paiste Giant Beat 15" Hi Hats

[He used another 18" {I think} for when he occasionally used 2 bass drums]

From 1971-1980:

Paiste 2002 18" Medium Crash (He used a second one from 1979-1980)

Paiste 2002 20" Medium Crash

Paiste 2002 24" Ride

Paiste 2002 15" Sound Edge Hi Hats

Other:

Paiste Symphonic 38" Gong

Ludwig Universal 29" and 32" Timpanis

Cowbell (made by Paiste according to Bonham's drum tech)

Congas

Timbales? I've seen pictures of two mounted drums near Bonham in 1970.

Heads: Remo Coated Emperor on the batter head; Coated Ambassador on the resonant (he may have also used a Diplomat on the snare at some point) On his vistalites, he used a clear CS dot head on the batter and clear Ambassador on the resonant on the toms and bass drum (Bonham used the stock resonant head on all of his bass drums).

Accessories:

Bonham used Primoco sticks, custom made for him. You can't get these, but I believe the sticks matched a 5B hickory pair.

Bonham used felt strips to round out the sound of his bass drum and used a Speed King pedal.

Bonham used Rogers hardware for his cymbal stands, and even custom mounted his rack tom with a Rogers mount and snare stand on his maple kit.

Bonham used 42 strand snares on his snare drums.

Tuning: Bonham tuned the batter head medium-tight while the resonant was cranked much higher, although this will require some experimentation. Since his drums were large in size, the sound is bigger than one would anticipate.

Let me know if I got anything wrong here.

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  • 3 months later...

Bonham had 4 main Ludwig kits that he used live.

-Thermo Gloss Maple (used from 1969-1970)

-Green Sparkle (used from 1970-1973)

-Amber Vistalite (used from 1973-1975)

-Stainless Steel (used from 1977-1980)

Generally, this was Bonham's complete set up (even though it can be found on the internet widely):

Drums:

6.5"x14" Ludwig LM402 Supraphonic Snare Drum

10x14" (or 12"x14" [on his Maple drums] or 12"x15" [on his Stainless Steel drums] Rack Tom

16"x16" Floor Tom

16"x18" Floor Tom

14"x26" Bass Drum (he used two of these for a few shows)

Cymbals:

From 1968-1971:

Paiste Giant Beat Multipurpose 18" Cymbal

Paiste Giant Beat Multipurpose 20" Cymbal

Paiste Giant Beat Multipurpose 24" Cymbal

Paiste Giant Beat 15" Hi Hats

[He used another 18" {I think} for when he occasionally used 2 bass drums]

From 1971-1980:

Paiste 2002 18" Medium Crash (He used a second one from 1979-1980)

Paiste 2002 20" Medium Crash

Paiste 2002 24" Ride

Paiste 2002 15" Sound Edge Hi Hats

Other:

Paiste Symphonic 38" Gong

Ludwig Universal 29" and 32" Timpanis

Cowbell (made by Paiste according to Bonham's drum tech)

Congas

Timbales? I've seen pictures of two mounted drums near Bonham in 1970.

Heads: Remo Coated Emperor on the batter head; Coated Ambassador on the resonant (he may have also used a Diplomat on the snare at some point) On his vistalites, he used a clear CS dot head on the batter and clear Ambassador on the resonant on the toms and bass drum (Bonham used the stock resonant head on all of his bass drums).

Accessories:

Bonham used Primoco sticks, custom made for him. You can't get these, but I believe the sticks matched a 5B hickory pair.

Bonham used felt strips to round out the sound of his bass drum and used a Speed King pedal.

Bonham used Rogers hardware for his cymbal stands, and even custom mounted his rack tom with a Rogers mount and snare stand on his maple kit.

Bonham used 42 strand snares on his snare drums.

Tuning: Bonham tuned the batter head medium-tight while the resonant was cranked much higher, although this will require some experimentation. Since his drums were large in size, the sound is bigger than one would anticipate.

Let me know if I got anything wrong here.

Im not the biggest expert. but i know for sure a few things i could add

On the steel-drum kit he changed the awesome 15 inch tom back to a 14 inch for the last 1980 tour.

Heres the shocker he also add a extra crash for that tour http://www.ledzeppelin.com/image/brussels-1980-4 here you can see that he used 4 crashes on that tour

from Bonzos left i think the first one in a 16 inch medium-crash, 15 sound edge-hit-hats, 18 medium-crash, 24 ride, 18 ride and a 20 inch medium-ride. all paiste 2002 series

and he added the 42 snare wire thing towards the end of zeppelins career. I dont remember when possibly also for the 1980 tour.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bonzoleum on Youtube is a very interesting guy and I think very knowledgable about Bonham in both playing and equipment. He said Bonham was to have a Black Sparkle kit for the American tour that never happened. Would have been awesome to see what JB would have played then and through the 80's, 90's, and today as drum equipment has changed.

Here is another interesting tidbit. Bonham used a rented Slingerland kit on the band's first European tour in the late 60's. Here you can see him playing that kit.

liseberg68.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
 

Bonzoleum on Youtube is a very interesting guy and I think very knowledgable about Bonham in both playing and equipment. He said Bonham was to have a Black Sparkle kit for the American tour that never happened. Would have been awesome to see what JB would have played then and through the 80's, 90's, and today as drum equipment has changed.

 

Here is another interesting tidbit. Bonham used a rented Slingerland kit on the band's first European tour in the late 60's. Here you can see him playing that kit.

 

liseberg68.jpg

That Slingerland Kit was super cool, it was a green sparkle 22x14, 9x13, 16x16. It was actually his own personal kit that he used with Band of Joy, he used it to record Led Zeppelin 1! It was also used with Zildjian Cymbals, when he got the Thermo Gloss drums in 1969 is when he fully switched to Ludwig and Paiste. Additionally, in between this kit and the maple kit he had a Ludwig Black Diamond Pearl set for only a couple of months from December '68 - February '69 it can be seen in pictures from Gonzaga '68 and the Whiskey a go go in January of '69. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/16/2015 at 11:45 AM, Ethan Christensen said:

That Slingerland Kit was super cool, it was a green sparkle 22x14, 9x13, 16x16. It was actually his own personal kit that he used with Band of Joy, he used it to record Led Zeppelin 1! It was also used with Zildjian Cymbals, when he got the Thermo Gloss drums in 1969 is when he fully switched to Ludwig and Paiste. Additionally, in between this kit and the maple kit he had a Ludwig Black Diamond Pearl set for only a couple of months from December '68 - February '69 it can be seen in pictures from Gonzaga '68 and the Whiskey a go go in January of '69. 

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/photos/led-zeppelin/1968-1969?page=16

 

"Bonzo was a Ludwig enthusiast throughout his career. In his early bands, A Way of Life and Band of Joy, he played a four piece Ludwig kit in Sparkle Green (Ludwig finish number 2004). The kit was a Super Classic: 22in x14in bass drum, 13x9 and 16x16 tom toms, with a 14x5 Supraphonic 400 metal-shell snare drum. This had been the standard rock drum kit in Britian, for those who could afford one, since Ringo Starr had swapped to Ludwig from the British brand Premier in 1963.  

Bass guitarist Dave Pegg says that when he played with John in the group A Way of Life. the drummer already has a Ludwig kit. "It sounded huge," recall Pegg. "It wasn't a huge kit, but it was phenomenally loud."

By mid 1968, Bonham was touring with American folk singer Tim Rose and playing the same green-glitter Super Classic. The set was eventually bought by British drummer Robin Melville, who lives in Cumbria. -- John Bonham A Thunder of Drums by Chris Welsh and Geoff Nicholls

Given Bonzo's affinity towards Ludwig kits, odds are Bonzo was using a Ludwig kit to record Led Zeppelin 1. (Black or Green Sparkle)

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