Rimshot said:
When I saw Bonham and Led Zep in concert in 1969-1970 he was playing a kit very similar to Buddy Rich's kit. 24" kick (that was big) 14" snare, 1 rack tom 12", 2 floor toms, 14" & 16". 24" ride, 20" crash, 18" crash and 15" hi-hats. Only one kick with one pedal (guy had a awsome right foot!) That was pretty much it. I believe that they were Ludwig (maybe not, but I think so)
Was it maple/woodgrained colored? If so, guess again.
That was a 16"x28" Kick, with 12"x15", 16"x18" & 16"x20" Floors.
(He plays it in the new Led Zeppelin DVD.)
The 15" Tom was so heavy, that Bonzo wound up mounting it in the tom mount AND a snare stand beneath it at the same time, because over the course of the night the tom would begin to move.
It's a double bass set actually, but the other guys in Zeppelin would take away the second kick because Bonzo would go off on these double bass tangents playing as fast as he could, and wouldn't play for the songs! HAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!! I love it.
I just wish that I could get some of the footage of him playing double bass.
This particular set also included one of the rare Ludwig 22" Floor toms...which Bonzo had mounted like a suspended bassdrum - up in the air above the 20" Floor....most of the time he didn't bother with it. For a very short period, Ludwig made 22" Floor Toms with a metal Floor Tom hoop with 10 Lugs- they made the original for Carmine Appice, or so I was told.
The Tom mounts were replaced with Roger's Dynasonic mounts, because they were the best at the time.
Carmine Appice was their big Rockgod/Endorser back then so they were willing to do things for him - when Led Zeppelin first came to America they were the opening act for Vanilla Fudge, and as soon as he met Bonham - they hit it off, and he called Ludwig ASAP and said - Give this guy an endorsement! So they did, and the kit included a bunch of new Paiste Cymbals, which Bonham used for his entire career.
So, Bonzo got an exact replica of Carmine Appice's set at the time - minus Carmine's Zildjian preference.
Paul Thompson (the drummer from Roxy Music and the original drummer for Concrete Blonde) is a big Bonzo head, and he owns this particular set now. This is the set that was used to record Led Zeppelin II-IV.
In 1998, I built a replica of this drumkit.
There are a copuple of pictures here.
http://www.geocities.com/jaxmetal/drums/drums.html
The Amber
Vistalite kit was a 26" Kick, 14" 6-lug rack tom, 16", 18", & 20" Floors aqccording to Jeff Ochletree - Bonham's roadie, and the owner of "Trick drums" (aluminum)- they would switch between floor toms depending upon how things were sounding and what mood Bonham was in.
They abandoned the set after the shells began cracking. Bonzo never uised this set on any studio releases, only on "The Song Remains The Same."
Then he switched to a Stainless Steel kit just like the original kit Ludwig, except with a 26" Kick, instead of the 28".
Ochletree said by that time, Bonzo was in really bad health and rarely even played the second floor tom, most of his stuff was being played on the mounted tom and one floor.
Tim
) and all I can remember was the awesome technique and that clean rapid-fire right foot (maybe 1968?) "Good Times-Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown" were their two hits then.