nail violin

noun

a musical instrument consisting of a wooden cylinder or half cylinder with a number of nails or U-shaped metal pins inserted into its surface, played with one or two fiddle bows.

Origin of nail violin

First recorded in 1880–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for nail violin

Historical Examples of nail violin

Two specimens of the nail-violin, one of which has sympathetic strings of thin brass-wire running over the sound-board.
Musical Myths and Facts, Volume I (of 2)
Carl Engel