a delicate instrument and should be handled gently 'like an egg' as it is all-too-easy to break one of the gourds (tumbas) or the hollow neck, peg holes, etc
A plucked stringed instrument from India, with six main strings, movable frets, many side strings, and sympathetic strings. The main strings may be also pulled from side to side, creating added subtle pitch variations. The main strings are plucked by a plectrum which is worn on the index finger of the right hand.
Plucked fretted stringed instrument
Long-necked plucked chordophone of northern India, with movable frets and a rounded gourd body; used as solo instrument and with tabla.
A string instrument of the lute type played by plucking.
a stringed instrument (get a Ravi Shankar album to hear one)
Indian musical instrument; a fretted string instrument with a gourd-like body and a long neck, similar to a lute.
"A fretted, long-necked lute." (Neuman 276)
The sitar (Urdu/ ṣītÄr, Hindi: सितार) is probably the best-known South Asian instrument in the West. A Hindustani classical stringed instrument, it utilizes sympathetic strings along with regular strings and a gourd resonating chamber to produce a very distinctive sound. The sitar has been ubiquitous in Hindustani classical music since the Middle Ages.