---
url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-gb/faq/instruments-artforms/what-is-the-difference-between-a-sarod-and-a-rabab'
title: 'What is the difference between a sarod and a rabab?'
author:
  name: rajeevk
  url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-gb/user/fce96177fd193d3a'
date: '2026-10-19T15:01:55+00:00'
type: website
summary: "The sarod grew from the Afghan rabab; it replaced the rabab's fretted neck with a steel fingerboard that allows long slides."
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 FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# What is the difference between a sarod and a rabab?

 Updated 19 October 2026

 

The Afghan rabab is the immediate precursor of the **[sarod](/en-gb/instrument/sarod)**, carried into North India by Pashtun musicians. The rabab has a fretted wooden neck; in Amjad Ali Khan's account, his forefathers replaced it with a smooth steel fingerboard and changed gut strings for steel. That fingerboard lets a sarod player slide across many notes, which the fretted rabab cannot do.



 

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## Related pages

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###  Instruments (1) 

- [   Sarod A fretless plucked lute from North India, the sarod spans three octaves on a steel fingerboard with 19 to 25 strings, played in Hindustani music with a coconut…     ](/en-gb/instrument/sarod)
 
  

 

 

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