CHORDOPHONES

            A chordophone is any musical instrument which makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification.
What many would call string instrument are classified as chordophones. Violins, guitars, lyres and harps are some examples. However, the word also embraces instruments that many westerners would hesitate to call string instruments, such as the musical bows and the piano.
Hornbostel-Sachs divides chordophones into two main groups: instruments without a resonator that is an integral part of the instrument ; and instruments with such a resonator . Most western instruments fall into the second group, but the piano and harpscord fall into the first. Hornbostel and Sachs' criterion for determining which sub-group an instrument falls into is that if the resonator can be removed without destroying the instrument, then it is classified as 31. The idea that the piano's casing, which acts as a resonator, could be removed without destroying the instrument, may seem odd, but if the action and strings of the piano were taken out of its box, it could still be played. This is not true of the violin, because the string passes over a bridge located on the resonator box, so removing the resonator would mean the strings had no tension.
Electric string instruments often have an electromagnetic pickup with which the sound can be amplified. The electric guitar is the most famous example, but there are new instruments like the overtone koto which make use of the new possibilities that pickups offer.