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Originally Posted by zodiaque  i recently bought a 70s Ludwig 24x14 bass drum. which heads should i use to get this vintage rock bass drum sound? i'm thinking about bonham or secret machines or something similar. an open sound that still cuts through.
are coated ambassadors for batter and resonant side the way to go? any tuning tips?
peter |
Congrats...vintage Ludwigs are the way to go, and a 24 can give you a hell of a sound. Is the drum 3ply?
For a Bonham-ish kick sound, most everybody is correct with the replies. There are a few discrepancies with the Ocheltree DVD (not trying to bash it, my friend Mark played the solo on it!) that I'd like to clear up:
Firstly, Bonham rarely (if ever) used a felt strip on the front of the kick. He seemed to have favored a homemade "powerstroke" ring, probably made out of another head and glued on the inside of the reso head. If you look closely at pictures of the Maple, Green Sparkle and Amber Vista kits, you can see the muffle ring. It appears as if Bonzo came up with the Powerstroke idea 25 years before Remo!
Secondly, Ocheltree teched for Bonham after he switched to the Stainless Steel drums. Since Bonzo never went back to the Vistalites, Ocheltree's claims to be "very familiar" with the Amber kit doesn't hold merit. Ocheltree most likely never went in the studio with Bonham either, since Zep recorded exclusively in Europe by the time Ocheltree was in the picture (he only worked on the American tours). I think Ocheltree was familiar with Bonhams tuning and methods, which he applied in the DVD. I've heard from several "in the know" people that Ocheltree never tuned the Stainless kit. He'd replace heads and perform maintenance, but Bonham would tune at sound check.
Finally, Ocheltree tries to pass the Green Sparkle set in the DVD as actually being Bonham's. Not true. I know the collector who sold Ocheltree the set that was used in the DVD (the sale took place about 10 years ago). When the kit was sold, it didn't include a 18x16 floor tom. If you watch the DVD closely, you'll see the 18x16 doesn't match (looks to be a re wrap).
Regardless of my nitpicking, it is a bad ass DVD and Mark Romans plays a great solo. Also very good mic information, which according to Andy Johns is correct.