Kemp Strings's video: Super Slow Motion Bass Guitar String Pluck at the University of St Andrews

A Bass Guitar string pluck in in super slow motion. Recorded by Dr Paul Cruickshank at the University of St Andrews School of Physics & Astronomy. Portions of a musical instrument string that are under tension in a straight line experience no net force and therefore no acceleration. Acceleration happens for portions of string that are curved. This means when the string is displaced into a traingular shape the diagonal portions of the string retain their postion for a time after the string is released. Initially, the only unbalanced force exists at the position of the finger and the disturbance moves at constant speed along the string in both directions. The disturbance that initially travels towards the bridge is rapidly reflected by the bridge (due to the pluck happening near the bridge in this video). Oscillations continue until the sharp nature of the diagonal patterns on the string gradually become smoothed out as the high frequency components die out faster. Some sympathetic motion of the string adjacent to that being plucked can be seen as this video progresses.