Finally, the Surbahar, also known as the bass sitar, comes with three to four drone strings, four playing strings, and 11 sympathetic strings. Each set has its own bridge. Drone and sympathetic strings can only be strummed. Playable strings can be fretted.

Some players wear a second mezrab on their middle fingers to assist them with playing. 13. The Sitar Takes Hours to Make The main bridge of the sitar called ghurach is one of its vital parts. It is flat in shape, and its length, width and height are about eight centimetre, three and two centimetres respectively. The bridge used for sympathetic strings is rather small in size and fixed just before the main bridge. Both of these and the upper bridges (meru) are made of stag horn or camel bone. The point where the strings touch the main bridge is actually responsible for the tonal quality of the sitar, and thus, special care is taken to ensure that the surface does not get a mark or a groove because of the continuous pressure of the main playing strings. If this point gets abrased, the surface is filed. This filing is called javari setting, and it is a very skilled and technical task which can be performed only by an experienced person. In Muslim tradition, some scholars believe the sitar was invented—or, much accurately, developed—by Indo-Persian Sufi singer Amir Khusrow (c. 1253-1325).The Sitar: Origin, Culture, and More: Featuring Dr. Usman Chohan. The Intelligentsia. Interviews: Episode 4. 11 April 2023. Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. New York, NY: Continuum. p.65. ISBN 0-8264-2819-3.

Donovan's personnel on his 1966 album Sunshine Superman included Shawn Phillips on sitar. Phillips also played sitar on one song on Donovan's next album Mellow Yellow, produced in 1967. If you watch online videos, you will notice that people prefer to talk about tuning the sitar using the Indian equivalent of Solfege called sargam.Huma Yusuf. "Pakistan's flagship carrier needs a radical overhaul. The Karachi crash is the latest reminder". Miner, Allyn (April 2004). Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-208-1493-6.