John Bonham

The thing about Bonham is that he used really big drums. He used an LM 402, which is a deeper snare drum, I believe a 14" rack tom and a 16" and 18" floor toms, not to mention a 26" bass, which is 4 inches larger than the regular 22" bass. For a classic rock sound, get large drums, and tune them lower... thats what Bonham did, and his sound is one of the most sought after sounds in drum history.

Actually Bonzo drums were pitched much higher than you might think.There is a video of Jeff Ocheltree who was Bonzo's drum tech for some time explaining the tuning of his drums,as well as what drum heads and cymbals he used with demos .Check it out.I was an eye opener for me.The Video can be acessed through the Drummerworld home page.Peace.

Steve B
 
No, Bonham tuned high.

Actually Bonzo drums were pitched much higher than you might think.

Yep indeedy.....big drums tuned up. And thank christ too. Those sizes tuned at JAW would sound horrible IMHO.

FWIW, does anyone know when JAW tuning came to the forefront? Is it a newer phenomenon or have people been doing it since Adam was a boy and I've somehow managed to miss it for so long? I'd actually never met or heard of a drummer tuning at JAW prior to joining DW. Seems there are plenty doing it and I don't quite understand why it's a desirable sound.....no tone, no projection, no life, for mine.


I believe he used the GS Ludwigs he always recorded with them throughout his career.

Anyone got the skinny on this? I always thought the SS kit came into play around the Presence era too. For both live and studio?

Might be time for a flick through of 'A Thunder of Drums' again. :)
 
I'd actually never met or heard of a drummer tuning at JAW prior to joining DW. Seems there are plenty doing it and I don't quite understand why it's a desirable sound.....no tone, no projection, no life, for mine. :)

golden pocket what does JAW stand for?
thanks.
 
golden pocket what does JAW stand for?
thanks.

Just Above Wrinkle.....basically the first tone you get out of a drum head after tuning the wrinkles out of it.

More common on bass drum heads, but you'll note there's quite a few here who tune toms and even snares this way as well. Way too low for my tastes.
 
JAW tuning became popular with metal guys in the early 90s. It makes it easier to match up two kick drums and helps with the click that Death Metal guys like.

I think it spread along with the smaller tom sizes. It was just rock guys trying to get some depth out of 10/12/14/
 
Just Above Wrinkle.....basically the first tone you get out of a drum head after tuning the wrinkles out of it.

More common on bass drum heads, but you'll note there's quite a few here who tune toms and even snares this way as well. Way too low for my tastes.

thanks...i do this tuning myself, but never heard the term.... so much to read and catch up with-overwhelming! and i'm something of a bonham student myself, tho not way way deep like many here, in fact just started looking at this thread-all the links are treasures for sure.

the reason i choose the jaw tuning(well i don't choose it exclusively 1st of all)- for rock, it sits so well with the mics. i play to the mics period. therefore wherever i set up, even outside or a gymnasium, they always sound good(even when not mic'd). i would never have gotten to it if not for sitting in on a set one night with that tuning, and i knew instantly it was exactly what i had been looking for for pop and rock. but i don't tune my snare like that. cheers to aussie land.
 
As someone who is an experienced tuner and tunes drums to notes, I was curious as to what general notes each drum in Bonham's kit was tuned to. I have a 1970 Bonham kit identical to his (see below), so I wanted to try to tune it as close as I could to his actual tuning. My only resource, other than trying to cop the notes off of records (very difficult and probably not accurate), was the Jeff Ocheltree video on the Bonham kit here on Drummerworld and Youtube. If you go to the Jeff Ocheltree video on the tuning of Bonham's drums, at one point he goes around each drum and strikes the top and bottom heads with a mallet. If you listen closely you can hear very clearly what note the heads are tuned to. Also, when his friend Mark Romans plays the kit, you can get a good idea of what notes the toms are tuned to as well. As he says in the video, the heads are tuned alot higher than you would think. After hearing the notes on his kit, I tried that same tuning on my kit and found that this type of tuning is dead on in the high mid sweet spot of the drums and they sound phenomenal, big and powerful, the perfect amount of sustain and resonance, and with an eerie similarity to Bonham's sound. When I play "Four sticks" on the kit, I swear it sounds just like it! I am assuming that because my drums are the same as far as age and construction (clear maple interior, 3 ply with re-rings) the fundamental tone of the drums is similar and allowed me to tune the drums to those notes. I'm not sure if you could tune another kit with a different shell thickness and construction and get the same results.

Anyway, here are the notes that I came up with from the video. It is interesting to note that the drums are tuned in fourths, with the bottom head being about a third higher in pitch than the top head. 14" tom, top head A#, bottom head C#, 16" tom, top head F, bottom head A, 18" tom, top head C, bottom head E. The bass drum seems to be tuned to an F# on the batter and an A on the front head. The snare drum seems to be an A on top and a G on the bottom, with the bottom head being very tight.
 

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I LOVE BONHAM!
His drums sound HUGE.
 
Re: John Bonham (Bonzo)

did any of you check those bonham drum outtakes.... a friend of mine sent me a link that had like 20 bonham drum outtakes!! haha.... i downloaded all of 'em... the link isn't active any more, but its just bonham and his massive drum sound! frikkin awesome! and my buddy who sent me the link, he's an ace guitar player...... he took one of the tracks, cut it up, and then made an entire tune out of it!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/blackstratblues_music.htm
check it out... its the first track there, its called 'evil'..... its instrumental, and has a friend of his making noises in the background, but its awesome. that's BONHAM playing drums. you'll know the instant you play the track.

Okay this messege is from 2005 but I have to say...I cannot stop listening to that song!! It rocks so freaking much! :D

John Bonham is what started all this off for my. Before he came along I never thought of drummers at all. Riffled through my Dads collection after getting sick of the Top 40 charts and found Led Zeppelin (I liked the name). It was the Physical Grafitti album :D I was loving the whole album but when it got to Sick Again I was thinking who the hell is this drummer? Got the Led Zep dvd on my birthday and was blown away. When it got to the drum solo...lets just say I probably looking like a mouth gaped mentalist. Possibly drooling? Also probably talking in tongues trying to make my mum understand that this was THE greatest drummer ever! At that point I didn't know he was the greatest. I didn't know he was always put in the top spot of drum polls and stuff. If someone with no drumming knowledge or experience can say that then he must be :D
 
I saw Bonham with Zeppelin in 1973 at the old Atlanta Stadium. The amount of energy he expended during that show was unbelievable. I have not seen anyone play that hard since.
 
Ringing true and heavy - and that right hand on the ride, feel...amazing!
 
As someone who is an experienced tuner and tunes drums to notes, I was curious as to what general notes each drum in Bonham's kit was tuned to. I have a 1970 Bonham kit identical to his (see below), so I wanted to try to tune it as close as I could to his actual tuning. My only resource, other than trying to cop the notes off of records (very difficult and probably not accurate), was the Jeff Ocheltree video on the Bonham kit here on Drummerworld and Youtube. If you go to the Jeff Ocheltree video on the tuning of Bonham's drums, at one point he goes around each drum and strikes the top and bottom heads with a mallet. If you listen closely you can hear very clearly what note the heads are tuned to. Also, when his friend Mark Romans plays the kit, you can get a good idea of what notes the toms are tuned to as well. As he says in the video, the heads are tuned alot higher than you would think. After hearing the notes on his kit, I tried that same tuning on my kit and found that this type of tuning is dead on in the high mid sweet spot of the drums and they sound phenomenal, big and powerful, the perfect amount of sustain and resonance, and with an eerie similarity to Bonham's sound. When I play "Four sticks" on the kit, I swear it sounds just like it! I am assuming that because my drums are the same as far as age and construction (clear maple interior, 3 ply with re-rings) the fundamental tone of the drums is similar and allowed me to tune the drums to those notes. I'm not sure if you could tune another kit with a different shell thickness and construction and get the same results.

Anyway, here are the notes that I came up with from the video. It is interesting to note that the drums are tuned in fourths, with the bottom head being about a third higher in pitch than the top head. 14" tom, top head A#, bottom head C#, 16" tom, top head F, bottom head A, 18" tom, top head C, bottom head E. The bass drum seems to be tuned to an F# on the batter and an A on the front head. The snare drum seems to be an A on top and a G on the bottom, with the bottom head being very tight.
That is the holy grail of drumkits in my opinion and coming from a guitar background I always wondered if you could tune to a key and tried the exact same thing using ocheltree but couldnt quite pull it off with my CB drums lol thanks for satisfying my curiosity!
 
This bear of a man is why i started playing drums. i can listen to all of the twelve studio and live recordings of Moby Dick as well as the five Pats Delight in a row and not get bored- the dude made some holy noise
 
he could do more with his bare hands than I can do with sticks...
 
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