The bar material is usually wood, preferably Honduras rosewood. The instrument is played with hard rubber or plastic mallets, and has a brilliant, incisive tone. The instrument sounds one octave higher than written, so the top note on a standard instrument sounds the same as the highest note on the piano. The bars are made of the same wood used in the xylophone, but they are cut differently, giving a mellow, warm tone that can be almost organ-like in the low register. Mallets are usually covered with yarn or cord.
Resonators extend to the bottom of the frame at the lowest point.
The instrument sounds where written. The bars are made of a metal alloy, usually aluminum. The bars are cut like the mellower marimba rather than the more brilliant xylophone. Mallets are covered in cord or yarn, and are often mushroom-shaped. Resonators extend near the base of the frame at their lowest point, and like the marimba the instrument sounds where written.