Roman Kumlyk The Owher Of The Museum Of Musical Instruments And Hutsuls Lifestyle In Verkhovyna (Ukraine)

The tsymbaly (Ukrainian: цимбали) is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal (steel or bronze) strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings.

The strings are strung in groups of 3-5, which are tuned in unison. The bass strings may have 1 or 2 wrapped strings tuned in union. The beaters were quite short in comparison to those used by the Cymbalom although not as short as those of the Belarus variety. Traditionally they had leather wrappings rather than the cotton wrap used by Hungarian and Romanian players.

Under the Hornbostel-Sachs system of classification of musical instruments, it has the catalog number 314.122-4,5.