Haste makes waste.  I noticed it as soon as I reread the letter
regarding the Shear Modulus explanation.  Shear = shearing
stress/shearing strain =F/A =1.  Shear Modulus = shear/distortion
caused by strain given in radians as long as that number is very close
to the tan[psi].  So Shear modulus will never equal 1.  The point I was
making is to get rid of the stiffness.  To do that, shear =0, not 1.
Sorry.  The rest of the explanation is ok, I believe.

    One final consideration is this: Strings not only create even
harmonics, but also odd harmonics as well as parasitic vibrations as a
result of beats between partials which are divided by those inelastic
domains we were calling nodes.  The way physicists help explain the
phenomenon which generates transverse pulses in a string is by
"assigning" what they call a "virtual wave" reflection.  Graphically,
they draw that reflection into the hitch as though it were a solid wall
or mirror having the same u (mu, mass/unit length).  So not only will
you have transverse but also longitudinal harmonics and reflections.  I
have never seen anyone even approach all the things that are happening
within and around a string which has been struck with a hammer.

    The string tone generated by pipes requires a second partial almost
as strong as the fundamental, whose antinode is at the ends and whose
node is in the center of the pipe for both fundamental and 2nd
harmonic.  This we can see physically in a Kundt tube.  And we know that
if we can actually watch the effect of these sound waves and plot their
nodes, all the time listening to a tone very similar to a string sound,
then we know what a perfect string must be able to do.  (The frein pipe
is built so long and slender and unstable that it blows its harmonic
without the frein (ideally).  When the frein is placed and adjusted, it
splits the wind, creating a strong fundamental and equally strong 2nd.)