When played on a wooden floor (common in ale-houses), the sound produced is a combination of a bass drum and tambourine.

It can also be played with an additional small notched or serrated stick held in the other hand, allowing it to not only be shaken or hammered onto the ground, but also "bowed" to produce a combined clicking and rattling sound.

The town of Brooweena in Queensland, Australia claims to hold the unofficial record when 134 people simultaneously played the lagerphone in 2009.

In the American upper-Midwestern states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the closely related vozembouch, stumpf fiddle or pogocello originated in Czech communities and adds small cymbals, strings, and a drum.

The "zob stick" variation of this instrument was constructed and named in 1968 by percussionist and songwriter Keef Trouble of the band Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts and Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs, and included a sprung-boot attached to the bottom of the pole and a metal sleeve round its centre, to be hit with a serrated wooden stick.