Adveser, that's a very interesting idea about acoustic pianos. As a piano player, I would love something like that. I saw a rock band once where their lead singer played keyboards, and he was really good. He rocked it out as hard as he could, and I thought it was cool. You make a good point though, I guess for some people that sound gets old after a while.
Thermionic, compression was actually the first effect I was thinking of when I started this thread, I agree with you on that.