No difference is apparent in the thickness of the strings; and it would seem therefore that variety of tone was produced solely by difference of length.

It is thought that this instrument must have been suspended round the player's neck.

It was carried at the left side, and was played (as already observed) with a quill or electrum held in the right hand, while the left hand seems to have been employed in pressing the strings so as to modify the tone, or stop the vibrations, of the notes.

The performers on this kind of harp, and indeed all other Assyrian musicians, are universally represented as standing while they play.
The harp of later times was constructed, held, and played differently.
It was still triangular, or nearly so; but the frame now consisted of a rounded and evidently hollow, sounding-board, to which the strings were attached with the help of pegs, and a plain bar whereto they were made fast below, and from which their ends depended like a fringe.

The number of strings was greater than in the earlier harp, being sometimes as many as seventeen.