The viola da gamba, or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played da gamba. It is distinct from the later violin, or viola da braccio; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings. Although treble, tenor and bass were most commonly used, viols came in different sizes, including pardessus, treble, alto, small tenor, tenor, bass and contrabass.