art

The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese instruments.Sometimes called the Chinese lute,has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12–26. The pipa started in the Qin Dynasty and developed by the Han Dynasty. It is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for nearly two thousand years in China.

Since the revolutions in Chinese instrument making during the 20th century, the softer twisted silk strings of earlier times have been exchanged for nylon-wound steel strings, which are far too strong for human fingernails, so false nails are now used, constructed of plastic or tortoise-shell, and affixed to the fingertips with the player's choice of elastic tape.

Electric pipa

was developed in the late 20th century by adding electric guitar-style magnetic pickups to a regular acoustic pipa, allowing the instrument to be amplified through an instrument amplified or PA system.