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Research out of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business began with what we know about music and power.

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/09/339134088 ... ike-a-boss

"What we found is when the song had higher bass in the music, that actually made them feel more powerful," says Galinsky.

And feeling powerful can be a good thing, even if you're not a pro athlete.

"People who have been made to feel more powerful can endure more pain," says Galinsky.

Bagpipes infuse the karma with the spirit of William Wallace (who looks a lot like Mel Gibson).
Don't need no stinkin' bass when you got Great Highland Pipes wailin' away.

Remember that all of the commercial radio stations know this, and in order to attract listeners, pre-eq the broadcast signal with both bass and treble boost, to compensate for the small speakers on the car radio. In my neck of the woods, the only station I do not turn the bass down is the local PBS station, which does not use as much pre-eq in its broadcast signal.

It's all a question of balance. What we perceive as "bass," due to our training, is true bass: below 100 Hz. What most people perceive as "bass" is what we call mid-bass, in the 100 to 250 Hz range. And yes, it gets pumped.

When I play electric bass, especially for my on-stage monitor, I actually cut the bass knob @-3dB, which on my combo amp is a shelving circuit with the hinge at @200Hz.

I've also noticed over the years, that many of the "venues" I have played tend to have a natural resonance of between 125 and 175 Hz, which also give the illusion of more bass than there actually is.

And finally, most commercially available PA and bass guitar cabs (not including subwoofers) have their porting designed to have a small peak at @ 100 to 150 Hz, then drop off so that there is effectively nothing below 50 Hz, in order to limit cone excursion, and therefore warranty claims from overdriven blown speakers.

But if you want "real" bass, there is a company that makes an entire range of bass guitar strings that allow a player to tune down, not just to the now-conventional low B 30.9 Hz .135 diameter string, but with strings that are up to and over a quarter inch in diameter, to tune to as low as 16.4 Hz C, when the average conventional 41.2 Hz E string on a conventional bass guitar is @ .100 to .105: