Bosnia
Custom Hand-made

Wood, nylon, metal
Mid-Late 20th century
Length: 40 in, Width: 9.5 in, Depth: 3 in
Strings – Lutes – Miscellaneous Lutes

This Bosnian saz is a descendant from the Turkish saz introduced by the Ottomans.  Nevertheless, it is closer in playing style to both the šargija that is used in Bosnian root/traditional music and the regional tambur. This type of saz is used predominantly by the Muslim Bosniaks and is a vital part of the sevdah or sevdalinke music genre, which got its name from the Turkish word for “love”; sevda.  

The Bosnian Saz as seem here is huge, complex, and fancy.  The dark stained fretboard which sits on top of the lighter stained neck has 14 nylon frets. The top of the neck has 7 wooden tuning pegs on a flat and round head. The head comes to a point at the very top of the instrument, making the head almost teardrop shaped. Unique to Bosnian string lutes are the glasnice (sonorous holes), which are drilled holes in the oblong resonator face board of this saz. They are considered to provide better spreading of sound vibrations from inside the kutla (resonator body).  The number and placement of glasnice vary from one instrument to another.  Here, they sit in the center of a stylized nonagon pattern. Below this is a wooden bridge and metal fine tuning mechanisms which are attached to the strings. All strings, which are metal, are attached to a dark stained tailpiece at the bottom.  The strings are arranged and tuned to three pitches, with three together playing one pitch and two pair courses for the remaining two pitches.

The frets are tied, movable nylon, but equally tempered and placed either chromatically or skipping a semitone here or there. I have seen regular, thin saz plectrums being used, as well as soft guitar ones. The scale length and body size are very large, between a Turkish divan and a meydan saz.