Hey, what's that sound: Zithers and autoharps

It's the sound that unites Orson Welles and PJ HarveyWhat is it? Well. A zither is technically any stringed instrument that has the feature of the strings not extending beyond the soundhole or resonator of the instrument (unlike, say, a guitar, where the strings stretch out into a neck). This includes a lot of instruments with which you may not be familiar, such as the koto, hammered dulcimer, Appalachian dulcimer, psaltery, cimbalom, guqin, guzheng and santur, as well as the piano or harpsichor...

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