Also known as the chord zither or guitar zither, this is a group of musical instruments which consist of a sound-box with 2 sets of unstopped strings. One set of strings is tuned to the diatonic, chromatic or partially chromatic scale and the other set is tuned to make the various chords in the principal key of the melody strings. It differs from the concert zither in not having a fretboard. One particular type of chorded zither, the autoharp, has a mechanical system for blocking chords.

First patented in 1894, these instruments were widely mass-produced in the United States and in Germany.