  We revisit the damped string equation on a compact interval with a variety of
boundary conditions and derive an infinite sequence of trace formulas
associated with it, employing methods familiar from supersymmetric quantum
mechanics. We also derive completeness and Riesz basis results (with
parentheses) for the associated root functions under less smoothness
assumptions on the coefficients than usual, using operator theoretic methods
(rather than detailed eigenvalue and root function asymptotics) only.
