Sick John Bonham Drum Collection!

My name is Carl Librizzi and I've been playing drums since 1968. The last kit I bought was in1979; a white Octaplus double bass kit from Ludwig. I always wanted an amber Vistilate kit in High School when they were first released around 1973, but could not afford one. About 3 yrs ago while on a Corvette forum, a guy posted a picture of his drum kit, I then posted my Octaplus and he responded by posting his Vistalite Octaplus! I never saw that kit before, so he gave me the url for Frank Pepitone's Vistalite showcase. Once on that site I saw he had a 70’s Bonham kit in amber vistalite, so I emailed him.

He had 2 bonham kits left; one he wanted to keep for himself and one was for sale, so I bought it. The kit I bought was site unseen, but frank assured me it was a 9.5 out of 10 in condition, so I purchased it and my collection had begun. I soon bought the rare 20’’ floor tom from Frank and then the 38’’ Paiste gong from Paiste. That took almost a year, as they only come every three months by boat from Switzerland. Every time it came there was no Chinese lettering like Bonzo had on his, just the Paiste logo, so I sent it back. This happened 3 more times until Eric Paiste called Guitar Center asking why I kept returning it. Finally the gong came with the Paiste logo and the 2 Chinese letters.

I wanted to duplicate Bonhams gear, so I found a model# 895 30’’ universal Timpani from Ed Banks at Falls Percussion. Ed unwillingly sold me the tympani, telling me it was one of only two he had seen in 35 years of renting Timpani's. He only sold it to me because I was bugging him on a regular basis.

After acquiring the timpani, I saw a green sparkle 1974 Bonham kit on e-bay. It was recently re-finished and restored by Matt Sinyard of The Bonzo Drum Co., by one of the owners, so I bought it. Matt does excellent work and the drum kit was featured in the April issue of Classic Drummer Magazine 2006 edition.

I then got a email from a friend and fellow drum builder/restorer, John Brankin. John has made all the Bonham graphics on my bass drum heads and has been refinishing/building drum kits for years. He has a love of Slingerland drums, but also Ludwig, so John found a late 70's stainless kit on craigslist. I went to see it and bought it, but compared to Frank Pepotones amber kit of 9.5 condition,  the beautiful green sparkle kits I bought in finished condition or near perfect shape, the stainless kit needed a 16" floor tom and looked like it went through WWIII. My friend and fellow drum restorer/builder, and drummer for the hard-rock band Doomsday Desciples in las vegas, Tom Meadows found numerous stainless steel kits and helped me find a nice 16’’ floor tom from 1978.

Tom built a stainless Octa Plus to go along with his stainless steel Ronn Dunnette kit. Every time Tom gets a drum kit, he dupliates the same kit in Octa Plus, so I took the stainless bass drum and rack tom to a professional stainless worker who totally rebuffed the shells to a brand new condition. The shells do not have any scratches anymore! I re-finished the hoops and inlays from Precision Drum Co., and after cleaning chrome parts and replacing bad parts, adding new heads and graphics from John Brankin, I had a late 70’s Bonham kit.

Tom Meadows just found me a 3-ply maple Bonham kit from 1972, ordered from Ludwig back then as a Bonham kit, assembled by Ludwig with matching numbers (in order) from 1972 and build sheets inside the floor tom shells. I purchased it from Pete Rodtis who owns The Swan Drum Co. He did the bearing edges of the drums for me and restores and builds brand new, sought after snare drums. I am currently cleaning this kit. Aside from that I have a Rodgers Hi-hat for every kit, Paiste cymbals the same as Bonzo used and Ralph kester ching rings with a Rodgers Hi-hat clutch. So I diplucated John Bonham's kit almost exactly as he had them. Swan leg cymbal stands, flat leg Atlas stands from 1969 and the tubular Hercules stands for the stainless steel kit. As soon as I'm done in late July with the maple kit I'll show you that piece of artwork!

Thanks for reading the history of my Bonham collection! Carl Librizzi