Thanks dude. No sweat. Just jumpin' in and cooling the water a bit. It got a bit choppy there. Sending smiles and hugs. flowers2 Nothin' but love to the drummers.

Ok, I studied this photo, as well as a few others, and I believe there's a good chance the drum was a 12x15. I'd be curious to know why Todd Trent thinks it was a 12x14, as well as curious to know what Paul Thompson has to say about it.

I used the Ludwig logo as a size reference. This logo is just over 7". When lined up on the drum, two in a row, it is clear that there is room for one more inch, making the drum 15" in diameter.

[IMG]http://www.classicvintagedrums.com/bontom.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.classicvintagedrums.com/bonham_tom.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.classicvintagedrums.com/bonham_tom2.jpg[/IMG]

Dudes! Your picture reminds me of the times people try to measure ringo's hi hats to answer the question if they were 14's or 15's (trick question, he had both) and even then it didnt prove anything. Especially this time because the rack tom is at an angle which I think you are measuring as that extra width. Trust me, if Paul responds saying it was a 15 then I will be happier because at least those are easier to find! BUT the measurement being 14'' is a known or thought or myth or whatever you want to call it among Bonham freaks... including people I know who own some of his cymbals bought from Carmine Appice.

Nice one MLVibes, but not quite. Bonham had a custom 8" logo put on all of his kick reso heads, so if you do the math, it's actually a 17" tom. There are only 2 of these in the world and I have the other.

Man, what a PITA it is getting heads for that drum.

You guys crack me up :)

Trust me, I want no part of this discussion, but ... that drum is a cylinder. As such, the measurement is not grossly incorrect due to the angle of tilt. If you think back to your basic math class (I'm not insulting you, I am a teacher), you might recall learning about three dimensional space figures. When you measured across the surface, it did not change due to rotation. Think of the sphere. It's the same at every angle of tilt. Now, consider the cylinder has sphere-like qualities within the body. The difference (if any) is negligible due to angle tilt. Cool?

Anyway, just wanted to continue keeping this informative. Thanks.

Well I'm sorry guys, but I'm still going with Carmine as the authority on this one. As he stated in the MD article and many others over the years, Bonham was freaked out by Carmine's kit so much that he wanted and EXACT DUPLICATE of it. If Camine says his kit had a 12x15 rack tom, then it did. If Bonhams kit was an EXACT DUPLICATE od Carmine's, then IT had a 12x15 rack tom. I don't get why this is so hard to comprehend. And MLVIBES, great detective work on the dimensions.......your post should be the final say on it. We know that the bass drum diameter is 26"....so we should be able to calculate the scale of the size of the drums in the photo. Once you calculate the bass drum to determine the scale, then you take the scale reference and multiply it by the actual photo dimension of the rack tom.......you watch, it will come out to 15" diameter......Yes Sir

Laughing H

ok....this is gonna be a bit geeky for a minute here....sorry guys.....ok I just took the dimensions of the bass drum in the picture and figured it to be about 1/16 scale......then I took the dimensions of the rack tom and multiplied it by the scale factor....I come up with 14.875.....now this is about as close as your gonna get without blowing the pic up to full scale.......so figuring for error in my BASIC ruler I was using, since any high tech measuring tools I have are at work in my toolbox and not in my top drawer in my kitchen...LOL.....14.875 sure is closer to 15" than 14" now isn't it?

I stand by my original statement 4 pages ago....its a 12x15.

Burger Kin

Thanks for the nice words, but I'm definitely NOT the authority on this! The word is out to Paul, let's hope he responds.

To me, there is also a lot of evidence that it could be a 12x14. In videos and photos of Carmine, his rack tom just looks bigger, a bit more square. Bonham's looks thinner. Also, as someone on another forum pointed out, the snare basket seems to be a little too angled to fit a 15" drum.

Here's Carmine's:

[IMG]http://www.classicvintagedrums.com/Carmine.jpg[/IMG]

And Bonham:

[IMG]http://www.classicvintagedrums.com/LZCB.jpg[/IMG]

I think you solved it! also look at carmines 12x15 and the pink sparkle rogers tom I posted. Same deal, neither looks like bonham's to me