Excerpted from the John Bonham tribute issue, July 1984 John Bonham played, for the most part, a very simple drumkit, consisting of a 14×26 bass drum, a 12×15 small tom—at first mounted on a snare stand and later on the usual Ludwig bass drum rail-mount—16×16 and 16×18 floor toms, and generally a Supra-Phonic 6.5×14 snare topped off with a Speed King foot pedal with a wood or hard felt beater. With today’s drum world set on massive and complex hardware constructions, it is refreshing to note that Bonzo, a heavy player if there ever was one, could make do with placing his Paiste 22″ or 24″ medium ride on the standard Ludwig bass drum shell-mount holder, and could use the Ludwig Atlas line of hardware, which is quite modest compared to the amount of steel built around contemporary drum sets. Flanked by Paiste 18″ (on his left) and 20″ crashes, […]

December 2021 Issue