The instrument is held vertically, with the soundbox resting in the player's lap or between the calves or it can be worn on a strap.

The leftmost strings of the instrument unite into a single course to form a doubled-string which is tuned to a unison that is lifted slightly from the bridge.

Due to the special nature of the instrument, the neck behaves as though it was unfretted despite the ordinary placement of numerous frets (anywhere from 24 to 34 or more to the octave).

Moreover, the frets can be moved about depending on the tastes and choices of the player to achieve correct intonation of a given makam.

Dr. Ozan Yarman has proposed an alternate 24-tone tuning and fretting for the tambur that he has applied to his own instrument, which replaces the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek tone-system in use for Turkish Art music while also relying on the same array of accustomed microtonal accidentals to notate.