Surbahar is essentially a bass sitar. It is substantially larger and is tuned anywhere from four steps to an octave lower than a regular sitar. Its technique is similar enough to sitar so that musicians have no trouble going from one instrument to another. The surbahar has an advantage over sitar in that it has a longer sustain and an ability to meend (glissando) up to an octave in a single fret. Therefore it is possible to play complex melodies without using more than a single fret. This instrument is very well suited to long slow alaps. The instrument's main weakness is that its long sustain causes a fast jhala to become indistinct and muddy. It is for this reason that some artists prefer to play the alap with surbahar but shift to sitar for gat and jhala.

Surbahar is an indian classical music plucked strings instrument of the Sitar family.
It has a 130 cm neck with movable and very long frets
that allow a glissando of 6 notes on the same fret by
the method of pulling.
Its neck is made of tun, (Cedrela tuna) or teak wood.
The neck is fixed on a large pumpkin used as a resonator,
and the instrument can emit low frequencies (less than 20 Htz).
The Surbahar has 4 rhythm strings (cikari), 4 play strings
(the thicker is 1mm in diameter) and 15 to 17 unplayed
sympathetic strings. All these strings lay on a flat bridge.
This type of bridge considerably amplifies the sound and
the spectrum, as the vibrating string hits the flat part of the bridge.
The strings are played by way of a metallic plectrum fixed
on the index of the right hand, the mizrab