Plucked string instrument

Most plucked string instruments belong to the lute family (such as guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, banjo, balalaika, sitar, pipa, etc.

The zither family (including the Qanún/kanun, autoharp, kantele, gusli, kannel, kankles, kokles, koto, guqin, gu zheng and many others) does not have a neck, and the strings are stretched across the soundboard.

In the harp family (including the lyre), the strings are perpendicular to the soundboard and do not run across it.

Struck string instruments (such as the piano) can be similarly plucked as an extended technique.

Plucked string instruments are not a category in the Sachs-Hornbostel classification, aside from 335 and 336, as some of them are simple chordophones and others are composite (depending on whether the resonator is the removable part of the instrument).

Guitar and lute
This illustration in a French Psalter from the 9th century ( c. 830 ) shows a little known plucked string instrument called cythara in manuscripts.
Stringed instruments hanging on a wall. Shown here are 4 Ukuleles , 2 Mandolins , a Banjo , a Guitar , a Violin , a Guraitar and a Bass guitar .
Qanún/kanun , origin from ancient Mesopotamia
Kantele