MOTM

Seth writes:
>>Or rather, if the transducer were going to touch the string, you probably 
want to put it in place of the bridge (if the intent were to have the string 
resonate at its open tuning)<<

I was asking about vibrating a string mostly out of curiousity for other things 
I had in mind. But what I would really want to do now is remove the lowest 
sounding string on something like a violin and put a device on the bridge in 
its place that will vibrate the bridge which in turn puts the whole violin body 
into motion. I would probably just use a sawtooth wave and would control the 
pitch from a synthesizer.

>>If I were going to attempt this, I think the first thing I would try 
is a piezoelectric element. Piezos are most often flat discs ...<<

I've used those little piezo speakers (if you can call them that) in the past. 
The ones that produce a tone when voltage is applied. I did think of them but 
wasn't sure they would have enough energy to vibrate the bridge or string. But 
maybe there are more powerful ones out there. If I can't find any other 
solution, perhaps the back magnet portion of a speaker will work.

Andrew wrote:
>>You mean something like this?
http://www.ebow.com/<<

Interesting. That looks like a electronic string vibrating device all right. 
I'll have to download the sound samples. It however looks like an expensive way 
to go if I needed to drive a bunch of strings.

Thanks for the info.
-Elhardt