Kazakhstan (Central Asia)
Kazakh people

Woods, metal strings 
Mid 20th century
Chordophones – Lutes

The kobyz is a Turkic stringed bowed fiddle used in the Kazakh folk music of Kazakhstan. The instrument originally had 2 strings (melody and drone).  It had a two-part body that is open on the upper half and covered with skin on the lower half.   In the 1930s, when the first folk instrument orchestras were established in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, a new kind of kobyz came into existence. As seen in this example, it had four metallic strings and became closer in shape and design to the violin.  It has a full wooden resonator soundtable with both a soundhole and f-holes that serve to transmit the vibrations within the body caused by the body’s resonance, to ring out with a rich tone. This modernized bowed kobyz is now used to play both Kazakh music and violin literature.