The answer to the crossword puzzle is 'SITAR, ' a five-letter instrument with sympathetic strings. The SITAR is a plucked stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani classical music, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It has a long neck with twenty metal frets and six or seven main strings, which are played with a wire plectrum called a mizrab. The SITAR also has up to thirteen sympathetic strings, which run underneath the frets and resonate when the main strings are plucked.