Plucked string instrument in the context of Plectrum

The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with some exceptions) and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier.

The guitar is classified as a chordophone, meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood, with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteenth century in the United States, but nylon and steel strings became mainstream only following World War II. The guitar's ancestors include the gittern, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar, all of which contributed to the development of the modern six-string instrument.

A bandura (Ukrainian: бандура [bɐnˈdurɐ] ) is a Ukrainian plucked-string folk-instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often called a kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings and resembled lutes. In the 20th century, the number of strings increased initially to 31 strings (1926), then to 56 strings – 68 strings on modern "concert" instruments (1954).

Musicians who play the bandura are referred to as bandurists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries traditional bandura players, often blind, were called kobzars. It is suggested that the instrument developed as a hybrid of gusli (Eastern-European psaltery) and kobza (Eastern-European lute). Some also consider the kobza as a type or an instrument resembling the bandura. The term bandura occurs in Polish chronicles from 1441. The hybridization, however, occurred in the late-18th or early-19th centuries.

The pipa (Chinese: 琵琶; pinyin: pípá; Wade–Giles: p'i-p'a) is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.

The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà in Southeast Asia. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used.

The bağlama or saz is a family of plucked string instruments and long-necked lutes used in Asia, Central-Asia, Caucasus, Anatolia, Levant, Thrace, Balkans and Europe. It is commonly used in Iranian, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Turkish Folk Music. It is a common instrument among Turkic people and a notable instrument of traditional folk artists like ashiks and ozans. It is both used as a solo instrument to play songs and to accompany türkü, traditional folk songs.

The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck that houses the second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box with a flat top, typically with one or three sound holes decorated with rosettes. As with the lute, the player plucks or strums the strings with the right hand while "fretting" (pressing down) the strings with the left hand.

The theorbo is related to the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pièces, the archlute, the German baroque lute, and the angélique (or angelica). A theorbo differs from a regular lute in its re-entrant tuning in which the first two strings are tuned an octave lower. The theorbo was used during the Baroque music era (1600–1750) to play basso continuo accompaniment parts (as part of the basso continuo group, which often included harpsichord, pipe organ and bass instruments), and also as a solo instrument. It has a range similar to that of cello.

A bandurist (Ukrainian: бандури́ст, romanized: banduryst) is a person who plays the Ruthenian plucked string instrument known as the bandura.

A mandolin (Italian: mandolino, pronounced [mandoˈliːno]; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of eight strings. A variety of string types are used, with steel strings being the most common and usually the least expensive. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.

There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the archtop mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued together into a bowl. The archtop, also known as the carved-top mandolin, has an arched top and a shallower, arched back both carved out of wood. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, braced on the inside for strength in a similar manner to a guitar. Each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular styles of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and in traditional music like the Andean music of Peru. Archtop instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British, and Brazilian folk music, and Mexican estudiantinas.

The biwa (Japanese: 琵琶) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710–794).

Typically 60 centimetres (24 in) to 106 centimetres (42 in) in length, the instrument is constructed of a water drop–shaped body with a short neck, typically with four (though sometimes five) strings.

The đàn tỳ bà or đàn tì bà (Vietnamese: [ɗàːn tì ɓàː], Chữ Nôm: 彈琵琶) is a Vietnamese traditional plucked string instrument derived from the Chinese pipa, That first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Vietnam sometime during the Trần dynasty.

It is made of wood, with a pear shape and four strings made of nylon (formerly twisted silk). The instrument is held in a near-vertical position when playing and its playing technique involves frequent bending of the tones with the fingers of the left hand. The strings are plucked with a small plectrum similar to a guitar's but larger. It was associated with the royal court and is still used in the ensemble that performs at the Imperial Palace at Huế.

The Portuguese guitar (Portuguese: guitarra portuguesa, pronounced [ɡiˈtaʁɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ]) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses watch-key or Preston tuners. It is iconically associated with the fado musical genre.

The vichitra veena (Sanskrit: विचित्र वीणा) is a stick zither, a plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music. Similar to the Carnatic gottuvadhyam (chitra vina) it has no frets and is played with a slide.

A kantele (Finnish: [ˈkɑntele]) or kannel (Finnish: [ˈkɑnːel]) is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument (chordophone). It belongs to the southeast Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery, along with the Estonian kannel, the Latvian kokles, the Lithuanian kanklės, and the Russian gusli.

Twang is an onomatopoeia originally used to describe the sound of a vibrating bow string after the arrow is released. By extension, it applies to the similar vibration produced when the string of a musical instrument is plucked, and similar sounds. The term came to be applied to a nasal vocal resonation, and was historically used to describe "a disagreeable resonance". Later, however, the term came to be more broadly associated with regional dialects, to the extent that in some locations, "a twang is a desirable commodity".

Toccata (from Italian toccare, literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers. Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments (the opening of Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo being a notable example).

Kannel (pronounced [ˈkɑnːel]) is an Estonian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Finnish kantele, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian kanklės, and Russian gusli. The Estonian kannel has a variety of traditional tunings. In Estonia, studying the kannel has made a resurgence after some years of decline.

The kanklės (Lithuanian: [ˈkɐŋʲkʲlʲeːs]) is a Lithuanian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery, along with the Latvian kokles, Estonian kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian gusli.

Kokle (Latvian pronunciation: ['kʊ͡ɔk.le]; Latgalian: kūkle) or historically kokles (kūkles) is a Latvian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Lithuanian kanklės, Estonian kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian krylovidnye gusli. The first possible kokles related archaeological findings in the territory of modern Latvia are from the 13th century, while the first reliable written information about kokles playing comes from the beginning of the 17th century. The first known kokles tune was notated in 1891, but the first kokles recordings into gramophone records and movies were made in the 1930s. Both kokles and kokles playing are included in the Latvian Culture Canon.

The koto (箏 or 琴) is a Japanese plucked half-tube zither instrument, and the national instrument of Japan. It is derived from the Chinese zheng and se, and similar to the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and ajaeng, the Vietnamese đàn tranh, the Sundanese kacapi and the Kazakh jetigen. Koto are roughly 180 centimetres (6 ft) in length, and made from Paulownia wood (Paulownia tomentosa, known as kiri). The most common type uses 13 strings strung over movable bridges used for tuning, different pieces possibly requiring different tuning. Seventeen-string koto are also common, and act as bass in ensembles. Koto strings are generally plucked using three fingerpicks (tsume), worn on the first three fingers of the right hand.