Gary Burton. His playing, technique and knowledge are unreal. Although I'm mainly a keyboardist, I had the great fortune to attend one of his seminars back in the early 80s. Vibes are set up like a keyboard so I thought I'd check it out . Maybe pick ...
Some xylophones can be as small as 2 1/2 octaves but concert xylophones are typically 3 1/2 or 4 octaves. So that's 20 up to 48.
From the pictures I saw of the Gammon sets, they looks pretty cheap overall. I started out, and still have, a random brand drum set (Verve) and I really, really hate it. It sounds like utter crap, and it was around $300. I wish I just saved up a litt...