Posted by jeff on September 01, 2003 at 18:00:05:
In Reply to: Re: This Hertz posted by Lee Stofer on September 01, 2003 at 10:37:24:
I had a friend in college who was doing piano technology - he told me that the real function of the extended bass range on Bosendorfer pianos was to place the usual low notes (i.e. the 27.5 Hz A and similar notes) closer to the middle of the piano design.
In other words, he thought that part of the reason that the lowest notes on a regular piano sound so gravelly is that they are on the extreme end of the piano's resonance curve. By building a piano that is designed to play a 6th lower, one pushes the regular gravelly notes closer to the "sweet spot" of the piano.
Obviously, the human ear is only able to distinguish pitch down to a certain point (20 - 30 Hz), so this theory has to be taken with a slight grain of salt.
I did some experiments in college with another tuba major, and found that in a blind test, both of us could distinguish and identify pitches down to the F or Eb below a normal piano. However, a horn player was unable to distinguish pitches in this register.