Ever since I was a baby, my grandparents had a baby grand piano sitting in the corner of their living room. While I was growing up, I used to noodle around on it from time to time. One thing I noticed was that the middle of the keyboard sounded very musical, but the bottom octave basically just growled. It was hard to tell which note was being played. Each note sounded different, but the actual pitch was indistinct.
It wasn't a bad piano. It's just that the bass strings were too short to sound the fundamental very well. And uprights and spinets, well, forget about it. The problem is made worse by the fact that the hammers hit the strings close to the bridge, which tends to excite more harmonics than fundamentals.
Even concert grands lack really clear fundamental bass notes. It's basic physics, captain.
When I was in high school, I learned to play 'Joy to the World' by Three Dog Night on our family's little Wurlitzer Spinet. I didn't think anything of it, until one Christmas, I was at my Great Uncle's house, and he had a concert grand in his living room. (He was a session musician in Hollywood, so of course he did!) I sat down at that piano, and started pounding out JTW by TDN. I was blown away by how good it sounded on that piano. For $40,000.00 in 1960s dollars, it better sound good!
Well, here's a piano that would put that tinkle box to shame! Fundamental bass, baby! It's all about that bass.
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