Black Sabbath Drummer Bill Ward Selling Vintage, Studio-Used Gear
Former Black Sabbath drummer and co-founder Bill Ward is selling over 200 pieces of studio- and stage-used gear. The Official Bill Ward Reverb Shop, opening June 28th, will include full drum kits, drum heads, cymbals and other pieces from throughout the musician’s legendary career.
Notable items include Ward’s six-piece Super Zyn cymbal set used on tour and during classic recording sessions between 1968 and 1971 (including the band’s self-titled debut and its follow-up, Paranoid, which Rolling Stone recently named the greatest metal album of all time); a pair of Zildjian cymbals used from 1971 to 1978; a Ludwig Speedking kick drum pedal used throughout the Seventies; and a custom, hand-painted bass drum head that features a bat and the word “Black,” used on the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour in 1973.
The gear list, culled from 10 storage facilities, includes over 150 drum heads signed and dated from the 1970s to recent years.
“I’ve collected a lot of stuff over the years, and I’m just trying to thin some things out,” Ward says in a video announcement. “Some of this stuff I haven’t played in quite some time – it’s just sitting there … If it’s going to drummers or collectors or whatever, then I’m only too happy.”
In the clip, Ward tests out the various kits and discusses his formative percussion influences. One pinstriped bass drum head, he says, was a callback to jazz drummers like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa. “It reminds me that we had some jazz in our metal,” he says.
E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren launched his own Reverb shop last month. His similarly massive gear collection included his first accordion and a Marshall rig he bought after his band opened for the Jimi Hendrix Experience.