| COLLEGNO | Musical direction to play the strings of an instrument by striking them with the back of the bow; Italian, 'with the wood' (3,5) |
| PLECTRUM | A device used to play the strings of a musical instrument such as a guitar (8) |
| SPICCATO | Technique in which the bow bounces lightly on the strings of an instrument (8) |
| OBIE | Award that becomes an instrument by changing an I to an O |
| STAMEN | The warp of the loom, so a thread, or even the string of an instrument |
| TODD | Titular protagonist of the 1847 play The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street by English dramatist George Dibdin Pitt (7,4) |
| SWEENEY | Titular protagonist of the 1847 play The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street by English dramatist George Dibdin Pitt (7,4) |
| CHORDS | Strings of an instrument |
| UPPERCUT | Supercomputer development abandoned by famous coder, striking them a blow |
| STRUM | Play the strings |
| POSES | Photographers catch some people striking them |
| BASSIST | A low-note musician who plucks the fat strings of an electric guitar, keeps the beats down low and provides the rhythmic foundation for funk, jazz, R&B, reggae, rock or ska (7) |
| BOW | A string player plays the strings with it |
| TREMOLO | In music, the rapid repetition of a single note produced by a back-and-forth movement of the bow on a string instrument |
| OLLIE | In skateboarding, an unassisted jump performed by pushing the tail of the board down with the back foot (5) |
| PRESTISSIMO | Musical direction to play at a tempo of 200 beats per minute or higher; Italian, 'very quickly' (11) |
| LARGO | What is the musical direction to play in a very slow and dignified fashion? (5) |
| TRUMPET | "... and it comes out here" (this last instrument, by the way, is the subject of the song) |
| ECLIPSED | Obscured an astronomical event with the back of the hand (8) |
| LUMBAGO | The trouble with the back of the album might disappear (7) |
