Pecker Pads update

A few months ago I bought a practice pad made by Pecker Pads, of Wills Point, Texas. I liked the pad for its size and articulation, and tried to find out more about the company.

A few weeks ago, a second Pecker pad appeared online and I decided to buy it. It arrived today and there are differences in appearance and dimensions.

Pad #1 appears to have been made earlier, as the label on the bottom has a city and zip code. This pad has a relatively flat top covered by a very thin layer of foam and a Remo Ambassador head. With only four tuning nodes, very high tension is not possible — or needed.

Pad #2 was made later in the company’s short history. Chromed labels adorn the top and bottom of the wood base (stained black) and the rim. This pad uses a thicker foam layer that is curved, with thicker foam at the center, and covered by an old Attack head. The inner portion of the wood base is taller than on the first pad, allowing for a wider tuning range; but with the same four tuning nodes this pad can’t be tuned super high.

I suspect that the head on the first pad is a replacement from a later date. The head on the second pad may be original to that pad as it uses the original Attack logo from the late 1980s.

(Attack was later bought by Cardinal Percussion in 2017, and then sold to Grover Percussion in 2025.)

You can see and hear the difference between the two pads in the photos and video.

I suspect that the Pecker Pad Company was only in existence for a few years, in the mid to late 1980s and possibly into 1990. I can’t find any information about the company. Wills Point is a small town of around 4,000 in east Texas, and neither the Chamber of Commerce nor the county archives can produce any history of the company.

It is highly possible that the company remained very small and may have never filed articles of incorporation (since such things weren’t regulated as strictly back then, especially in more rural areas). The label on the newer pad doesn’t indicate a location, so it’s possible the company and its maker moved elsewhere before folding up shop.

I like both pads a lot. Neither is terribly loud, which is nice when you live with other people. The 8” size isn’t optimal for anything beyond warming up and accuracy, but it’s portable and very fun.

If anyone can offer more specifics for me to follow up on, I’d be grateful.