American musical instruments

electric or acoustic bass instrument

electrified guitar; fretted stringed instrument with a neck and body that uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals

A mandolin (, ; 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.

thumb|start=8|thumbtime=63|Ukulele made by Jonah Kumalae The ukulele ( ; ), also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and construction. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.

The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of BOPET, where early membranes were made of goat skin.

The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a vibraphonist, vibraharpist, or vibist.

The sousaphone ( ) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. It was first created around 1893 by J. W. Pepper as a modification of the helicon, at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa, after whom the instrument was named. Sousa intended the bass sound of his helicons to better project above the heads of the band, and into the auditorium. Like the tuba, sound is produced by moving air past the lips, causing them to vibrate or "buzz" into a large cupped mouthpiece. Like the helicon, the modern instrument is bent in a circle to fit around the body of the musician, a

thumb|right|A metal kazoo thumb|Other examples of kazoos

musical instrument

An autoharp is a string instrument in the zither family. Its distinctive structural feature is a set of bars, each with damping pads that mute the strings not belonging to a specified chord. A chord is played by pressing the corresponding bar against the strings with one hand while strumming them with the other.

musical instrument

A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. Fiddle is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violin and fiddle are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of a

type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument

fretted string instrument of the zither family

large, steam-powered musical instrument

thumb|right|240px|Latin Percussion vibraslap showing metal teeth

string instrument played with hammers

musical instrument

musical percussion instrument

single-string zither of the rural American South

musical instrument

type of pipe organ

musical instrument, based on an empty jug

musical instrument