This is a list of instruments by Hornbostel–Sachs number, covering those instruments that are classified under 321.31 under that system. These instruments are also known as spike lutes. These instruments are made of a resonator and string bearer that are physically united, with strings in parallel to the sound table and a handle which is also the string bearer and which passes diametrically through the resonator. The shape of the resonator divides the instrument into one of three subcategories: spike bowl lutes, spike box lutes and spike tube lutes.[1]
The spike in the name spike lute refers to the fact that the handle passes through the resonator, often forming a spike after it emerges from it. In instruments like the Chinese erhu, the spike is vestigial, but in many instruments, like the rebab, it acts as support during performances.[2]
Spike lutes are common in West Africa, as are tanged lutes, instruments in which the handle does not extend all the way through the resonator. A hereditary class of West African musicians, griots, play only tanged lutes; but non-griot performers in West Africa play a mixture of both spike lutes and tanged lutes.[3]
The resonator of these West African lutes may be made of wood, metal (such as a discarded can), hide, or a half-calabash gourd.[3] Non-griot lutes are not restricted by heredity, and are used for many social purposes, most commonly hunting.[3] It is likely that one or more of these instruments is the ancestor of the African American banjo.[4]
These instruments may be classified with a suffix, based on how the strings are caused to vibrate.