I’m so glad this channel exists

Truly wise advice here. Watch it a few times.

You've helped me immensely with tuning larger drums for different rooms. I've always played smaller drums(20 12 14) and struggled to find my sound on larger drums. Thank you so much!!!

George you made my day!!! Thanks for taking the time and showing us the art of tuning on an kit!!!

Ya, i saw a pic and thought dam thats a clear head on his snare and said i must be wrong. I recently restored an early 70s green sparkle and they sound really nice. I agree its about the person playing them also. But still that snare of yours is awesome. Thanks for the video George

George, this is exactly what I’m trying to convey when I comment on all your videos, one felt strip or crunched up news paper here or there is not going to make you sound like Bonham it’s the combination of all the things you mentioned the feel the touch your attitude your perception of the drums the way you manipulate the kit these are all gifts you have George that’s why today without video I would not be able to distinguish between you and the real thing I’ve said that on many of your videos, now does it help to have a beautiful 3 ply vintage Ludwig Thermo with reinforcement rings with Remo ambassadors all the around ,,,YEAH but you still have to know what to do with them.

Thank you for the cool 😎 tips and tuning I will try them on my Ludwigs green sparkle keystone Bonham Kit .

The fundamentals of tuning is so simple, but it takes quite some time to develop the link between ear and adjustment. Ive found that once a sound is achieved thru tuning, I take a tunebot measurement on reso and batters and head type at the time then file them away. I started playing in 1976 and I dont think I really grasped HOW to get the sound I wanted with very little effort. It seemed to take me forever lol. It takes time. Drummers like you-Bonham and the like grasped that relationship waaaaay earlier than I did. Thanks George! Great video.

Thanks for sharing! Great vid, great advice 🤘

Good stuff! Thanks for your lessons.

Thank you for another great video. I was so surprised to find another musician like myself that's way into jazz and into Bonham. I had the great experience of studying with Duffy Jackson, and he looked at me like I was from mars when I told him Bonham was a early as well as still a huge influence. My first time hearing you was on the Ben Paterson album "For Once In My Life". You always sound incredible no matter what you're playing!!!

Excellent advice. Great tutorial.🥁

Thanks for this video! Your way of find a note for every drum is fantastic! I think this is one of best KZfaq channel. Again, thanks, and big hugs from Brazil!

Thankyou George nice job as always

Many thanks for doing this video, I found it most helpful as it was presented with clarity, genuine knowledge and modesty. You have been keeping your broader musical talents to yourself for much of the time of your you tube output. Obviously your drum skills are well known and appreciated by anyone who watches you on here (or live, no doubt) but it now seems that you have perfect pitch, the skill to be able to recognise a musical note just by hearing it. My grandmother had this and was asked to begin the hymn singing in chapel when the organist was too ill to play. Musicality often runs in families and you have been truly blessed and I thank you again for sharing your time in order to help others find the pleasure and satisfaction that playing music can bring. Cheers George.

Thank you soo much for this video. I was about to give up on getting that sound, but now I have my answer

Great info. Thank you.

VERY COOL ...THANK YOU!!

Thanks George help me a lot! I have a DW performance series kit and they are a little tricky to tune. I got them sounding killer now! Really like your videos! Thanks for sharing your knowledge

THANKS FOR SHARING GEORGE !!

Great stuff indeed

I couldn’t tune my Vistalites with silver dots. So I got clear pinstripes and followed your advice. They sound AMAZING!

this is amazing

Ton of good tips!👍

I just came across one of your videos for the first time, and wondered if you had a tuning video. Two days ago you uploaded this. 😁 👍

Sheesh that kit sounds amazing!

I always loved the way his kit sounds on D`yer Maker.

CAUTION Highly addictive content! Jazz drummer with a baseball cap, gives advice on how to tune your drums if you play Led Zeppelin, while humming Richard Strauss.

Snare is spot on brother

Thanks!

I like your way of thinking.... 🙏🏻 🖖🏻🇫🇷😎🇫🇷😎🇫🇷🖖🏻

New subscriber, great channel mate. Greetings from the U.K. 🇬🇧 👍🏻

Just (finally) received my Amber Vistalite Bonham kit ...came here to get some really needed information......

Perfectly said in every way

George, I think you can give me lessons haha.

Thanks for focusing on this subject. I would love to hear your opinion on bass drum reso side tension vs batter side. Also bass drum beater height. Thanks again.

Great! Yes, the toms isolated have an ominous sound (like let's get ready to ROCK!). I was thinking that the first two toms sounded like something from Ben Hur when Heston and the other slaves were rowing at 'ramming speed'.

I recently picked up a 70s silver sparkle ludwig kit off the original owner for $250. A gift from the gods. Nice video

Appreciate your organic, ear-led tuning method. IMO, Bonham used Ambassador weight heads until he worked with Jeff Ocheltree - JB's brighter, open drum tone pre-1977 to my ear plays this out....also think you pretty much nailed Bonzo's SD tone & pitch for Zep's '75 EC show...Thx 🥁

Tunebot frequencies that got me close to this on my classic maples: 13" rack tom - Batter 224 Reso 238 16" floor tom #1 - Batter 170 Reso 184 16" floor tom #2 Batter 120 Reso 132

Thanks man

Hi George, I definitely prefer the higher tuning on those large size shells, All my three ply Ludwigs have the Emperor / Ambassador combo and this works so well. I also fitted a Kelly Shu flatz mount inside my 24" kick and fitted a Ba19 and the sound is amazing - no damping at all

Great video ,been watching all of them and was wondering if you could help,I’m trying to tune my drums(new to acoustic,been playing e drums) having a hard time tuning and was wondering if you could tell me the notes of your toms when you’re playing misty mountain hop and dazed and confused on this video

Very informative about tuning but I wanted to see you play more. You sound good.

Could you do a video on how to tie the snare wire on with the white cord?

I see young drummers at gigs I play at that mute the heck out of their drums........duct tape, gel pads and all kinds of stuff. I play Ludwig Classic Maples with no muting at all and a small cushy pad my wife made me in my bass drum. I get lots of compliments on my drum sound and then I see these guys batter and reso heads just covered with stuff.

This guy is the real deal. He has done a few Moby Dick live solo videos that sounded exactly like the Man was there himself.

Great work! Do you use an emperor or ambassador on the snare batter? Thanks.

Thanks George, very helpful. I broke my hazy reso head on my Supraphonic the other day trying to tighten it up higher than my batter head. Gonna keep practicing (& tuning!)

KICK DRUM TUNING PLEASE!?.. Hi George great video! Can you please make one on only the kick drum? I know you have done video on the Tom's and several on snare sounds but nothing on the Kick.. If you have can you please reply with a link to that video and if you haven't can you please make one?.. I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting... haha... Peace V

Hey George, I was looking to get the 1.6mm hoops for my snare but could only find double flanged and not triple flanged. Do you have triple flanged 1.6mm hoops on your 10 lug snare? Amazing videos by the way, your kit sounds closer to Bonham than anyone I've ever heard.

But is that a period correct tuning key? Lol!! Great vid! Still hoping you'll check out good morning little school girl.. Johnny Winter..live version

Thanks George, again a fine video. Just need to ask you a few things if you don't mind. Firstly, you demonstarted raising the pitch when required etc, and you proceeded to tighten the batter heads only. Isn't the pitch normally set by the reso head? At least this is how I've always understood it. You achieved this perfectly by simply tightening the top batter heads, amazing... But then for this to happen smoothly you would need to have the reso heads set to a specific tension, right? This brings me to my last 2 questions, how do you set the reso tension? Your snare reso was set to a 'G' note, what notes are your toms set to? Can you please tell. Thanking you in advance.

that 402 sounds perfect to me.

Hello from Australia! What heads are used for the Tom Tom resos and bass drum batter? Any felt strip? Thanks

I have a 12 inch hoop that maybe came from a old rogers kit, but anyway, it makes the tom have a different sound even with coated remo heads. Doesn't anyone use a drum tension tuning lug key thing anymore?

The guy I played with before covid is a personal friend of Carmine appice . I played his cactus blue badge bass drum it had shredded newspaper in it

You should post your tunebot settings. Modern technology has afforded us tools to quickly and accurately tune..consistently

I noticed no felts on the tops of the crashes. Is that to not muffle the sustain on them?

George, what heads do you use as resonant on toms?

Do you think I’m Stairway to Heaven, his 14 was also tuned to an A?

Ludwig is my choice of drum kits 🥰

Thanks for the insights , I can hear pennies dropping for miles around ! Just one question : who’s the drummer over your right shoulder ? I think it’s Elvin , he has that animated look ! Don’t care if I’m wrong , it’s a great photo anyway ! Thanks again

What heads do you use on your kick drum?

The first LZ album didn't have the big Ludwig kit. It was a smaller kit. Possibly Slingerland.

SNARE AND KICK PLEASE !!

Are your drums wrapped or painted?

What kills me with heads is modern Ambassadors are too heavy for me and Diplomats are a hair too thin. Apparently ambassadors used to be thinner (but not as thin as modern diplomats) so I currently use smooth white diplomats right now and it's very LZ1, with that shimmery top end that he really only got on the first album. Really I'm more chasing that early Kinks, and Mitch Mitchell tom sound but it still has a strong Zep 1 vibe.

I can get a Bonham like sound out of some Evans G2 heads

I don’t like those gadgets for tuning drums.i play by ear whether I’m changing drum heads I know what a snare drum or tom’s should sound like. It’s more natural to me 🥁

Do you think Bonham had people hit the drums while he stood in the seats so he could get a reference?

Moiist!

Leme 'splain something here. I watch a lot of tutorials of guitar players showing how to play stuff like YES, Rush, and obviously a lot of Zeppelin and they turn what should be a 10 minute video into a 45 minute video because they are trying to teach the most basic aspects of guitar playing... On a Rush lesson. One must read and write before studying law. These bands are obviously not Blink 182 so I would skip all the stuff about "finger tight" or "till the wrinkles disappear" only to save yourself the drama. While we understand and greatly appreciate these sorts of breakdowns, you can't kill yourself by having to get down to things like holding your key up so we can see what color it is. I think it's best for people to crawl before they try to walk.

g#

avec ta casquette tu ressembles à Lars Ulrich 🤣😉

I’d be happy to edit this for you. Also. Consider not using the ambient mic.

Your drums do sound nice but you did mention about people who use " Torque Wrenches" Supposedly. I personally have 2 sets. A 1970 Ludwig Bonham size kit just like you and I have a 1970 Slingerland set with the same sizes in White Marine Pearl. My Ludwigs were custom Mahogany Lacquer. I personally like the Slingerland sound much better. I tune all of my drums exactly the same way. I use a Tama Tension Watch and I tune the bottoms tighter to a certain number of tension and I write them all down on paper. Then I tune all of the tops/fronts a little lower than the bottoms and write them all down. I have never and never will put a hole in the front of any Bass drum ever. That is for the morons in the world to do. I don't care if they have been playing for 50 years or not. I have the tension numbers from every drum from a 6" concert tom all the way around to a Bonham kit, which is all I ever play is those sizes. My Slingerland kit has a 9x13 mounted tom instead of a 10x14 for the first time in my life. I also use only Remo coated ambassador heads on the top and the bottoms of every drum except my Bass Drum. In the front of my 14x26 I use a Remo Power Stroke 3 coated ambassador head to avoid any ringing. I don't use any muffling on any drum ever. They are all wide open. I do use a little piece of those Blue Gel Pads on the top of all of the drums only if it has a little bit too much of a ring. The main reason that I tune all of my drums with the Tama Tension Watch is because whenever I need to change a skin, I can change it and tune it exactly to the same tension and it will sound identical, until it stretches and then I keep tightening it until it stays in tune perfectly with the correct number of tension that I write down for each drum. My 14x26 Slingerland/Ludwid bass drums always sound exactly like Bonham at the 1970 Royal Albert Hall all the time. That is the way my drums always sound. They never sound different, because I tune them the same way every time. Also, I don't break skins, so when I want to change my skins, I change all of the tops and never mess with the bottoms. That's my system. I believe Bonham did the same thing because his sound NEVER CHANGED ON ANY SET EXCEPT THAT SHITTY STAINLESS STEEL SET. EVEN MY 1972 RED VISTILITES SOUNDED JUST ABOUT THE SAME, BUT, I WOUND NEVER PLAY THEM OUT LIVE BECAUSE NOTHING BEATS THE SOUND OF A VINTAGE 3-PLY MAPLE KIT... Joseph

We don't deserve this

Thanks!!

Snare is spot on brother