Baglama - Saz

The Turkish baglama (also called the saz) is the central long-necked fretted lute of Turkish music — a family of instruments ranging from the small, high-pitched cura to the large, deep-voiced meydan sazı, played across Anatolian folk repertoire, Turkish classical music, and contemporary fusion projects. Its movable tied frets enable microtonal practice across multiple regional uzun hava and kırık hava styles.

The baglama family spans seven principal sizes. The cura is the smallest with a bright, high-register voice. The çöğür is short-necked with a warm, resonant tone suited to chamber playing. The kısa sap baglama offers compact reach without losing tonal depth. The uzun sap baglama, with its long neck, is the most widely recognized type. The tambura has a crisp, bright projection ideal for vocal accompaniment. The divan sazı, larger-sized, occupies Turkish classical settings. The meydan sazı, the largest of the family, delivers powerful low-register sounds for outdoor and ensemble use.

Construction uses a carved-bowl body — most often mulberry, juniper, or maple — paired with a spruce soundboard. The long neck carries movable tied gut or nylon frets that can be repositioned for makam practice, supporting precise quarter-tone and koma intonation. Most baglamas carry three double or triple courses of strings tuned in fourths, played with a plectrum (tezene) or with the fingers (şelpe technique).

The baglama is the foundational solo voice of Anatolian aşık (bardic) tradition, alongside dance and song repertoire across Turkish folk regions. It also appears prominently in Turkish classical chamber work, contemporary fusion ensembles, and as the parent design that inspired the electric caglama hybrid built within the string instruments family.

At Tapadum, Cihan Doldur builds çöğür-variant baglamas with attention to chamber-suited voicing and intonation precision. Each baglama in our collection passes individual setup checks — tied fret positioning, neck-to-bowl angle, plectrum response — with our string instruments specialist Sertan Sarioglu before shipping from our Brisighella, Italy showroom.