A violin string clamped between steel walls would radiate almost no sound

Evidence

It seems pretty clear that a bowed violin string is in the waxing part of the resonance advantage curve—that stronger outcoupling of the string vibration (which is a resonant vibration) to the body will lead to louder sound radiated. For example, if the string were held between two solid steel walls, it would vibrate more vigorously but not by that much compared to when it is attached in the normal way to a violin. Friction with the bow and with the air, not to mention internal friction in the string, see to that. Almost no sound would be produced. More energy flows into the body from the strings if the bridge (as attached to the body) presents a lower impedance to the strings. The nonlinear nature of the stick-slip bow-string interaction is self-limiting; the energy will not build up indefinitely in a bowed string even if it is not connected to an energy drain. By the same token, if the drain of string energy is significant at the bridge, the source will be obliged to put more energy back into the string. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1775

Categorization

• XREF: The waxing/waning resonance advantage curve links back to section 10.8’s trumpet treble-boost argument treated earlier in the book.