| 1. |
No stalks. The keys are laying freely. It is the simplest way to improvise such instrument. It can be considered as a primitive form of African and South-East Asian xylophones. A metallopone of this type is found in the piphat ensemble of Thailand. Its keys are held in place by the instrument's top edges surrounding them. |
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| 2. |
The keys are barely held in place but xylophones of this kind can be found occasionally in various places of Africa and South-East Asia. |
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| 3. |
More common. Specially frequent for the gambang. |
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| 4. |
The most frequent configuration for the saron / gangsa jongkok. Safest of the four. |
In configurations 3 and 4, holes have to be bored through the key. To disturb as little as possible the key's vibration, the holes must be situated within its acoustic nodes. |
