Between the mid 1960’s and late 1960’s most of the MIJ stencil drum manufacturers released a newly designed bass drum pedal, most of which share many similarities, especially the word “PEDAL” right there on the footboard.
It is clear to see that someone had to be first with everyone watching to borrow a little inspiration. I personally have no idea who was first because of the lack of yearly catalogs from all of the manufacturers, so I’m going to go through alphabetically and show what I have and what I have found out about these pedals.
As far as the footboard design, Gracy stands alone with all vertical lettering spelling out the most obvious name possible: “FOOT PEDAL”. Yan Drum was an affiliated company nearby Gracy’s factory. Of these four pedals, this is the only one that I possess that is a dual spring design. Earlier this year I wrote a whole story on the restoration of this pedal found here: https://www.notsomoderndrummer.com/not-so-modern-drummer/2026/1/19/yan-bass-drum-pedal-restoration
The origin of the “TOP PEDAL” was unknown to me for quite some time with a complete lack of Hoshino brand catalogs in existence during this era, but I did find multiple stencil catalogs to help confirm my suspicions. Note that the TOP PEDAL is the tallest of the lot and is the only one with the wrap around leather strap.
This is one of the catalog pictures that I found; it’s from a special Home Entertainment edition of the 1970 Sears catalog. If you notice the lugs and mount on the floor tom they are clearly Hoshino “no. 6” lugs with the standard floor tom leg mount as well, both of which are completely exclusive to Hoshino.
Pearl’s “SPEED PEDAL” dates back to at least 1966 and was found in stencil catalogs through at least 1971.The clever use of the “D” in SPEED as the “D” in PEDAL makes it unique but following the general style of Hoshino and Star. The 1969 Pearl brand catalog lists this pedal as the “709 STANDARD DRUM PEDAL” and pictures it as a double spring style. No doubt the name was inspired by the Ludwig Speed King. Also note that the base is very similar to the Gracy/Yan Drum FOOT PEDAL
The SPEED PEDAL was prominently placed in stencil catalogs featuring Pearl made drums. The Revere catalog is from 1969 and the Bollero catalog is from 1971 and both have the double spring design.
The Star “PRO PEDAL first appeared in the 1966 Star catalog as the “Model No. 720 PROFFESIONAL PREFER PRO-PEDAL”. This pedal also had the hi-hat companion of the same style (model No. 853). The PRO PEDAL also came with a hard felt beater with a green felt band on it that appears to help it maintain its shape.
This AD is from the 1976 Bennett Bros. catalog, which was two years after Star discontinued as a stencil manufacturer. For inquiring minds, the above 6-piece Star kit was listed at $611.50.
Just to include Sakae (the fifth MIJ stencil manufacturer), I have a rare catalog picture of a Sakae stencil in the 1967 Barclay catalog. Notice the hi-hat pedal just has lines without any words on it at all. I guess those who purchased from Sakae could just tell what a pedal was!
Note that I did spot what appears to be a MIJ pedal that was simply marked “PEDAL” but it was a lone picture and not associated with any specific drums, so maybe Sakae was in on the action, but without a catalog we may never know.
Hoshino, Pearl, and Star all used the exact same footboard from the bass drum pedals on their hi-hats. In this case it’s the SPEED PEDAL collection from Pearl.
Across the board all of the pedals function pretty close to the same, but if I had to pick one to gig with, it would be Star’s PRO PEDAL, it has the thickest metal base and it’s also the lowest profile, which reduces the likelihood of breaking. I will say that all of the footboards are very solid and have not bowed at all, and they all had wear on them, so they were well loved over the last 50+ years.
It would not shock me if the Hoshino, Pearl, and Star pedal footboards were all an outsourced product from a single factory, with the rest of the parts being made in their own respective factories. Just another mystery to solve!