The viola da terra is constructed of wood with a traditional guitar "hourglass" shape for the body, a fretted neck, and headstock supporting the tuners.

Traditionally the viola da terra had wooden friction pegs inserted from behind the headstock (see illustration), rather than the "watch-key" mechanism used on Portuguese instruments such as the Guitarra Portuguesa.

Nowadays the Viola da terra usually has machine heads, similar to those of the classical guitar.

One unusual distinguishing feature of the viola da terra is that the portion of the fingerboard which passes over the instrument's body is set flush with the top face of the soundboard.

The instrument is much lighter in construction than the classical guitar, using thinner tone woods, which permits a considerable volume of sound, despite the instrument's small size and light strings.