I recently build a thumper and used a ball ping hammer. I have noticed that most of the thumpers pictured on here and u tube used a rubber mallet. Will that make any difference in the thumper’s effectiveness in attracting fish? I tried to post a picture but was not successful.

I like the deep resonating thud of a rubber mallet or dead blow. The ball peen would probably make a sharp snap sound. It may work fine though, but when i manually thumped before I got the BOBO's Thumper, a cane tip on a dowel worked better than a bare dowel IMO.

Thanks for your input. I was a little concerned about using the ball ping hammer. I am old and on self imposed lockdown due to covid so I built this thing out of stuff I had laying around so chose an old hammer that I had. I may build another one using a mallet to see if there is a difference.

Not sure. I use a metal rod inside a pipe. The rod slides up and down and slams into a piece of wood on the bottom of the thumper and it works great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LozMWb94aTk

All you can do is go try it ontop of some fish and see if they gang up and get excited and then you'll know for sure.

I use a ball pien hammer and it works great. I used to use a rubber one but switched to steel... I have about 30 videos with it...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi602ZTsxnkaVwT0wq3OgCA

I think I finally figured out how to post a picture. Maybe!

Thanks for the inputs. I found a soft plastic cap in my junk bucket that will fit tightly on the hammer. I will try it both ways and see how it works. To me the sound is about the same both ways. Maybe slightly quieter with the cap.