This is a Hammered Dulcimer... I bought htis on a trip to Northern California and thought it was a pretty fun instrument to play with. You use these little wooden hammers to play it, and while it sounds cool that way, I have trouble doing it. I tend to play it with my fingers, like you'd fingerpick a guitar. You're always hitting pairs of strings in unison so it's kinda like a 12-string, but not in octaves. This instrument has no name, and I don't really see a day in the future where I'll have a name for it. It's never been recorded either, as I am not quite proficient enough on it. I have been working on a way to incorporate it into my music, but haven't found that magical place in there where i say, "Hey the dulcimer would be great there..."