Sputniks are part flat stick, part square, part bundled rod. Each corner is fitted with a 1/8″ black polypropylene rod. Each rod has an adjustable ½ nylon bead. There are 3 ‘O’ rings. The inner ‘O’ Ring can be used to pull the white slats tightly together and the outer ‘O’ rings are used to pull in the black rods. The slats are bendable, so they can be manipulated to produce different sounds and bounce. By adjusting the ‘O’ rings forward or backwards, it is possible to produce a very tight bundled rod sound or a very loose attack sound like multiple drummers playing slightly out of sync.