This post is for the nerds, because science is your friend, even in music!
Check out this paper, entitled “Superior time perception for lower musical pitch explains why bass-ranged instruments lay down musical rhythms” from the National Academy Of Sciences. It explains the methodology, and results of testing listeners, to determine the differences in human perception of musical information, depending on the pitch of the sounds heard.
Or in other words, the bass player makes it funky, and the piccolo player does not. Also, the bass player can get away with not being perfectly in tune, but the piccolo player has no such leeway.
This is just a bit of optional reading for the scientifically curious – there will not be a test!