Phil Rudd's Early Sonor Sets...

[Jules]

Phil signed with AC/DC in 1977, I am pretty sure. Seems like he got a new drum set almost every year. The first couple had power sized toms, then in '79 he got the Phonic Oak set which had substantially shallower toms, then in '81 he was touring with the Signatures with the square 14" tom and deeper than round floor toms, which were well suited to his playing style, in my opinion.

Despite the shallower toms, he used the Phonic Oak kit on the 1979 tour n support of Highway to Hell, and then again on the tour supporting Back in Black. I find this odd on several levels. In my reading over the years I don't think they were exactly rolling in money yet, while on tour for HTH. In fact, I have seen photos where he was tuning his own floor toms backstage. May have been a personal preference, I do realize.

So, After signing in '77, but '79 he was on (at least) his 3rd set of Sonor's; the Phonic Oak with the more "Jazz" tom depths, if you will. If I had been a AC/DC/Rudd/Sonor fan paying attention in those days, it would have been interesting to track this. I don't know which of these sets came first, but there was the Acrylic set and then the square badge set with the smallest tom to the left of the bass drum mounted toms. Then came the Phonic Oak set for the then biggest album/tour yet. You would THINK that Sonor being so generous up to that point would have put him into at least another finish for the next tour, but no. After touring the world with the Phonic Oak in '79, for the first time he took the same drumset out for another world tour supporting what had become or was quickly becoming and absolute smash hit.

Maybe he really liked that Phonics. Maybe there were multiple rigs. My assumption would have been that he liked the lighter color and/or the shallower drums since he didn't pull out the prior kit with the deeper toms. So, when he hit the road for the last time (of that run with AC/DC) with the Signatures in Ebony, I would have been flabbergasted. Dark finish and square/beyond square tom/floors.

Makes me wonder if artists like him were giving thought to things like depth, or if they were just going with the flow from whatever the manufacturers were doing at the time.

I hope this provokes some conversation and opinions from others.

For reference:

Acrylic.png (150.85 KiB) Viewed 839 times

[SonorBart]

I saw the '79 tour - they opened for Cheap Trick. Phil's oak Phonics were the first Sonor kit I'd ever seen in person.

The tom sizes on the Acryl kit in '77 on the back of the album have always puzzled me. I have the '77 catalog and there are no power depths listed. This pic is in the catalog and I think it's a 14x14 floor tom shell with a tom mount and no leg brackets. Obviously a custom order and I don't know who the drummer is - a precursor to the square size toms that came a few years later. Billy Kreutzmann from the Grateful Dead did the same with a Rosewood Phonic 14x14 floor tom as a rack tom with Rogers Memrilok hardware in the early 80's.

[SonorBart]

I took a closer look at the Acryl kit pic on the back of the "If You Want Blood..." album. Those two rack toms appear to be the same size - probably 15 x 12 deep, creating the illusion of them being power toms. I've always wondered why all the drum companies of that era made 15x12 toms. 15x11 would've made more sense to stay consistent with 12x8, 13x9, and 14x10. I'll bet it's because 15x12 marching snare drums were common, so that's the depth they made the tom shells.