Sorry- another double post.

Thanks for the nice comments guys. After more research, I have seen numerous examples of Leedy war time drums referred to as "Leedy Alliance" but I haven't come across any official Leedy publications or manuscripts that refer to the "alliance" outfit. Maybe John Aldridge is a VDF member and will solve the mystery. OddBall...the sizes are the same as the Victors.

I would think that is a case of mistaking the name "Alliance" for "Reliance". Not a WWII term but Reliance was definitely a Leedy line of drums.

Hopefully I am not out of line for doing so, but I emailed John Aldridge to see if he could shed some light for us. I know some of you are already pretty much experts on the subject (Cooper, Oddball), but I thought it would be interesting to hear his response.

BTW Cooper, I sold you a Radio King Gene Krupa snare a few months ago on Ebay. Hope it worked out well for you. Had some extra holes and missing parts.

Yes, I remember that drum. I was able to put it back in working order with a correct strainer, extension brackets, etc. It turned out quite nice.

Hopefully, John Aldridge will chime in here. He's a wealth of knowledge, especially in the field of 1920's-30's engraved metal shell drums.

And while I appreciate your comment, I am in no way an expert on Leedy or any vintage drums. But I do love learning and studying about their history. Harry Cangany is also a big Leedy history guy and has written lots of books and magazine articles on the subject.

I forgot to mention that Chet Falzerno's Gretsch history book has some information on the Defenders, along with a photo advertisement.

Believe it or not, The experts, the guys that really know about Leedy, are being mysteriously quiet. I have been conveying what I`ve learned here from them,..and the best thing you learn from them is how to do the research and put all the pieces of the puzzle together, to form an informative array of facts and when you do it long enough and can draw on the infomation from memory, then you become the expert !i I do however remember alot, but not at expert level, about Leedy !i

I`m a Sonor guy !i

Lug count, Plies, and things like that make the differences between high end drums and entry level. Reliance, not Alliance is a later entry level drum. Maybe the two are connected !i