Tendon-based instruments are widely used in both robotic and manual minimally invasive surgical procedures. Direct measurement of the interaction forces at the tip of such instruments is difficult. As a result, methods for estimation of these forces are of substantial interest. In this paper, modeling of the input-output hysteretic behavior in a da Vinci instrument is addressed using the classical Preisach approach. The performance of the developed model is experimentally evaluated. The results obtained demonstrate that the classical Preisach model allows for sufficiently precise estimation of the forces at the tip of the da Vinci instrument.