Jump to content

Bonham's Double Bass


Bonzo_fan

Recommended Posts

I've read a few times that Bonham used a double bass briefly in 1969 before Page told him/they all agreed it was too much.  Does anyone know which shows in '69 he used a double bass at?

My apologies if this has been covered before...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, paplbojo said:

Would have been awesome if he brought out the double bass for the "hard-driving rock album" he and Page and been discussing to follow In Through the Out Door. 

I don't know; his right foot was so good, he didn't really need it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Bonzo_fan said:

I don't know; his right foot was so good, he didn't really need it...

He didn't need it at all, of course.

It would have been cool to hear what that right foot would do with a double, and it would have been a great time to employ it, on their "hard driving" album. It would have helped push things to the max. Just saying...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would have preferred he utilized a second ride tom on his kit, not that he needed it but it would have given a bit more here and there.

A double bass is just overkill in Bonham's case. It would be like having Bill Black AND Bootsy Collins on bass at the same time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, IpMan said:

I would have preferred he utilized a second ride tom on his kit, not that he needed it but it would have given a bit more here and there.

A double bass is just overkill in Bonham's case. It would be like having Bill Black AND Bootsy Collins on bass at the same time.

That's an interesting thought.  I used to have two rack toms, but gave up the second when I got the Paiste 24" ride that Bonham used.  I thought I would miss it a lot, but I don't at all (and I don't even have a second floor tom yet like he did).  It may not have been logistically possible for him to have the second rack tom--that 24" ride takes up so much space, it'd be hard to find an ergonomic place to put it if you had two toms up there!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bonzo_fan said:

That's an interesting thought.  I used to have two rack toms, but gave up the second when I got the Paiste 24" ride that Bonham used.  I thought I would miss it a lot, but I don't at all (and I don't even have a second floor tom yet like he did).  It may not have been logistically possible for him to have the second rack tom--that 24" ride takes up so much space, it'd be hard to find an ergonomic place to put it if you had two toms up there!

Good point. Bonham could do more with that 5 piece kit than almost any other rock drummer could with one of those insane octopus kits with four bass drums and 20+ other drums. Bonham was the maestro.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, IpMan said:

Good point. Bonham could do more with that 5 piece kit than almost any other rock drummer could with one of those insane octopus kits with four bass drums and 20+ other drums. Bonham was the maestro.

Exactly, and having less actually forces you to be more creative, because you have to mess with other variables in order to create variety.  Some of his stuttering fills in the slow parts of Dazed sound way cooler than a super fast, all 32nd- or 64th-note fill across a million toms IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...