The bolt pattern on the Leedy and Slingerland mufflers is the same (3 holes parallel to rims). Some of the Leedy/Ludwig drums had a new muffler on them (3 holes perpendicular to rims), but some of them may have still used the older Leedy muffler.

It's hard to tell the original Leedy and Slingerland mufflers apart. If you're sure its a Slingerland muffler and not a Leedy, then it was probably changed out (maybe the original one broke) sometime in its 60 year history.

There should be a date stamp inside the drum so you can tell what month and year it was made.

Please post a picture; I have a Leedy Ludwig concert king in WMP and have only seen a couple on the net. Mine is original except was missing part of the throw so I made something workable from hardware store parts.

Here's some pictures of the drum

Very nice drum; looks to be in stellar condition.

Mine is marked "5202" and has the same Leedy Ludwig badge as yours, so was built in Feb (02) of 1952 (52), about mid-way through the short life of the company from 1950-1954. Mine looks just like yours except it has the three perpendicular holes and larger knob muffler used on some of the other Leedy Ludwig drums.

At the bottom is a link on another forum to a Leedy Concert King from 1939 (stamped "3910") and you'll see it has the same muffler layout as yours. It has the standard Leedy knob, but as I mentioned, the Slingerland muffler and knob (which you have) is completely interchangeable with the Leedy one.

If there is a date in yours, and if it is late in the run of the company (1954), then maybe yours was finished off with Slingerland parts before being sold. But if there is no date in your drum, then I would be inclined to believe that it is from early in the history of the company when they were still using the Leedy muffler before they were manufacturing their own, and that it was replaced by an owner sometime in the last 60 years. This would leave no visible signs of replacement since the holes are identical.

The reason I believe this is that Harry Cangany in his book "The Great American Drums", writes: "By 1954, top management at Conn decided ...to sell the drum division. The existing inventory was sold to Indiana Music, an Indianapolis retailer. The Leedy dies and patents went to Slingerland for $90,000. The Ludwig and Ludwig dies and patents went to WFL for the same amount."

In other words, the owners took all existing inventory and sold it off to raise money, and sold the dies and patents to Slingerland and WFL, but no actual drums.

(If there is no date in your drum is it possible the interior was repainted?)

Link to 1939 Concert King:

http://www.drumforum.org/index.php?/gallery/image/953-013jpg/

UPDATE:

OK, this is annoying, but I just noticed something that changes my above opinion.

The muffler on yours is to the right of the strainer, but it is to the left of the strainer and in between the strainer and badge on my drum and on the 1939 Leedy. This order seems pretty unlikely to have changed over the years, and makes it more likely that your muffler was put on the drum someplace other than the factory.

SO, my new opinion is that your drum was either a special order without a muffler or was part of the remaining inventory sold to the retailer without a muffler when the company was broken up, and then the retailer or some owner over the years decided to add one and added a Slingerland.

The idea that it was part of the excess inventory could be supported by a late build date, or by no build date in the drum. So is there a build date in your drum?

There is no build date . The tone control is located like a slingerland (like I mentioned in my post) Thats what makes me wonder if it was installed after slingerland bought leedy at the factory ?

I don't think I was clear. Two separate points here that say this was not manufactured in the Slingerland factory:

If Harry Cangany is right (and as far as I know he always is when talking about Leedy), then Leedy/Ludwig did not send any drums to Slingerland - they just sold them tools and patents. So there is no way that Slingerland would have built a drum and put the Leedy/Ludwig badge on a drum from their factory since they didn't get any of the drums or badges and didn't own the right to use that badge.

Second, Leedy, Leedy/Ludwig (and it turns out Leedy(Slingerland) too) all put the muffler to the left of the throwoff, between the throwoff and the badge. But the muffler on yours is to the right of the throwoff. So it is in a place that none of the factories would have put it.

That makes me think that your drum came out of the factory with no muffler, and the Slingerland muffler you have on it is an after-market muffler put on by the retailer or a later owner. The retailer could have very well been "Indiana Music"; that could also explain why there is no date in your drum - though the lack of date could also be that it was washed off since they are not permanent and can easily be washed off or painted over.

If it is from Indiana Music, then it would have been one of the last Leedy drums made at the Leedy/Ludwig factory. Maybe someone else knows more about the Leedy drums from Indiana Music, and whether they had date stamps or not, and whether it was common for them to make minor changes like muffler location on the Leedy/Ludwig drums they sold.

Here is a link from the 1960 Leedy Slingerland catalog to show that they put the muffler in the same place that Leedy and Leedy/Ludwig had:

[IMG]http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/images/leedy_snare_drums/1960-leedy_snaredrums3.jpg[/IMG]