Each month Rhythm Magazine tracks-down vintage gear in order to important moments in drum-making history.

Reno Drums are one of the great curiosities of the British drum scene. Jimmy Reno was a well-known character in post-WWII Manchester and owned a multi-storey music shop at number 64, Oxford Street. He was also an inventive chap and had a factory in Altrincham which produced these unique drums in the late 1940s/early 1950s.

Reno shells were extremely thin - made, according to Bob Henrit, from post-war RAF surplus plywood. But it is the internal tensioning mechanism which is remarkable and - again according to Bob - Reno applied for a patent as far back as 1939.