Bonzo's drum sound

Although I never saw him play either, my guess would be 10 percent of the sound was the studio (mike technique, processing, etc), another 10 percent could be the drums he played (tuning, sticks, heads, build of the set, etc), and the remaining 90 percent was the man himself, and his ability to control his playing, and translate his emotion to what he played, so on and so forth.
(I guess that about makes the 110 worth of percent performance I generally heard from him)

Drum sound has four variables. How the drummer strikes, brand/material of the drum, how the drum is tuned and how the drum is mic'd (and processed). Bonham clearly was a powerful striker and I belive he played Ludwig maples. The book "A Thunder of Drums" details the exact drum kits and tunings Bonham used. With that as background, do not underestimate the contributions of Jimmy Page (producer) and Andy Johns (engineer) to the recorded sound of Bonham's drum. Their's is more than 10% of the actual sound you hear on LZ's records.

All Real,

Heavey handed"feel"player with wide open drum tunning and squeaky"speed-king" bass drum pedal.

Great for that band..