I play what I collect, when I first got the Leedy Broadway I have now it came with perfectly good factory snare wires, I asked a lot of leedy drum players what snare wires and the extended or standard, I showed you how I play mine Now you make up yours after the test! just my two cents!!, on my Broadway's and Radio kings I use standard snare wires not extended.

BTW. Do you know if this is a solid maple shell or not?

it's probably not at such a late date of manufacturing! can you post a pic of the bearing edge or have you already? I just looked at the pics No its a plied shell not solid

It so happens I also play all my snare drums... in fact I consider myself a player first and a collector second.

These superb drums were designed to be played with extended snare wires for a reason and I respect the maker's intentions.

Four more superb snare drums with extended wires... It would be a travesty to replace them with non-extended wires! Ron

Ron you can run your snare drums anyway you want to, but the extended snare wires don't sound as good as the standard ones do period!, this is advice given to me by George Lawrence, John Aldridge, and others who do also play what they collect! the clam shell strainers you have no choice but to run them, but not on a three point and that metal band system has no adjustable to it Not any! and Take a look at the Front cover of this book and see who wrote it and look how he's running his 1930's rk just like I do??

Uh-oh, we got a fight on our hands here. Easy boys, easy!! I'm open minded so I just ordered the extended Pearl snares and when I check them out I'll give you my verdict, for whatever that's worth...

I noticed on Ebay that there's some new Leedy snares for sale. I wonder if it's possible to order the same snares that they use on those drums.....

I'm not impressed by your invocation of people whose playing I've never heard. I'm especially turned off when someone tries to settle a disagreement by saying "period!" To me, that shows petulance and small-mindedness.

Ron

Note detail of the '39 3-point RK's bridge showing the level adjustment knurled knobs:

Sorry guys, I'm with Royal Ace on this one....extended snare wires DO work WHEN SET UP PROPERLY. The idea is to have all the snare wires extend completely across the head so that the head doesn't choke, like on a standard snare wire setup.

If the "expert collectors" tell you that they don't use them on their own drums because they don't like the way they sound, they should put the drum back to the way it belongs and sell it. What's the point of collecting them if you change them from stock just to have them lose their UNIQUE sound by modifying them? I play all my drums in my collection and I leave them completely stock. This is the same reason you see so many Rogers Dynasonics for sale WITHOUT the original type snare wires/bridge system....the current owner thinks they know better than they guys who designed the thing. (they don't!) Ever hear a Leedy Broadway or a Radio King or a Dynasonic that is set up correctly? They are the most sensitive and articulate sounding snare drums out there. With regular snares they sound choked and like every other generic snare drum out there. Hmmmm

Look I'm a purist when it comes to originality of vintage drums,I;ve used the metal band puresounds, on my rk's, and then I took the advice of people that you've never heard and I tried standard snare wires on gated snare drums, after using the original the standard snare wires sounded better to me than the original or aftermarket replacements do!. I've never had an audience member come up and say Oh Man To Bad You Don't Have The Original Snare Wires On it??? but I've sure had them say that snare drum sounded Great!!! AS I said, Use whatever you like But you Used Travesty to run them the way they are Intended. that's your opinion and you know mine, you'll continue to do as you do and I will to, and Now the Fellows who's thread we are trashing is going to try both and we will see which one he chooses, now that he's been offered two solutions to the problem?