The Saw is a bowed string instrument. The musical sound is produced by rubbing the horsetail hairs that are tied to the bow against the strings to make vibration and pressing fingers on different positions of the strings to produce different pitches.
         The Saw Sam Sai (Three-string Saw) has six main component parts.
         1. The neck (Kan Saw or Tuan) is made of a variety of hard wood or ivory divided into three sections.
                 1.1 The upper section (Tuan-bon), about 25 centimeters long, starts from the cord that fastens the strings with the neck (Rad-ok) to the top end of the neck. In the past this upper section is hollowed to help produce the resonant sound.
                 1.2 The middle section (Tuan-glang), about 41 centimeters long, starts from the Rad-ok to the sound box. This section is generally decorated with mother-of-pearl, an alloy of gold, silver and copper, or gold.
                 1.3 The lower section (Tuan-lang or Khaeng-Gai—chicken shin), about 25 centimeters long, starts from the bottom of the sound box. The end of this section is made of pointed piece of metal to stick on the floor for steadiness when playing the instrument.
         2. The tuning pegs (Luk-bid) are about 15 centimeters long, made of wood or ivory carved in a cylindrical shape with an ornamental knob (Hua-med). The three tuning pegs are inserted through the neck (Tuan) to be attached to the 3 strings made of silk, the principal (high), the medium and the low pitch strings. Each string is tuned to the pitch of the 4th interval from each other.
         3. The sound box is made from a half of the shell of a special specie of coconut, which has three bulges in the form of a triangle. The coconut shell is framed with hard wood called Kanong Mai Sak (literally “teak eyebrow”). The open side of the shell is covered with goat skin or calf skin with proper stretch. The Kanong Mai Sak and the edge of the shell are also covered.
         The sound box of Saw Sam Sai is made in two different sizes called Na Phra and Na Nang (the male face and the female face).
         4. Rad-ok is a cord of small silk strands twisted together and fastened around the three strings and the neck.
         5. The bridge (Yong) is a small piece of wood or ivory placed on the skin covering the sound box. It will transfer the vibration to the skin cover and to the sound box.
         6. The bow (Kan Chak) is made of hard and strong wood such as wood from the orange jasmine tree. It is made in a 87 centimeters long thin curve. About 250-300 small horsetail hairs or nylon strings are tied to each end of the bow with suitable tension.