Mark Petersen

It is my pleasure to be a new member of the BassChat community! I'm Brooklyn born and bred, although I've lived at different times in Virginia, Texas, and Rome, Italy; and I currently live in lovely Troy, New York. I am a child of the 70’s, who was spoiled by the legion of awe-inspiring bassists who populated that decade, and I subsequently dedicated myself to listening to, and learning from, every pioneering low-ender to hold down the music that I’ve listened to since then. I'm "retired" now from the cover-band circuit, during which time I played almost every style of music imaginable. I now play for my own edification and karmic peace, focusing on Proggish music with a Jazz-like orientation--i.e., the musical styles that most caught my interest during the late 1960's and '70's. In the past, I've owned and loved extra-long scale 5 and 6-string basses. However, my current bass collection consists exclusively of 4-string basses, which challenge me to explore areas of the fingerboard that I might otherwise shy away from. The large majority of my basses are 32"-scale--which for me, is the "Goldilocks" scale--although I own two 30"-scale piccolo basses, four 34"-scale beauties built by Mark Alien (Malien Bass), and two 34"-scale basses by some obscure company from Brooklyn, NYC, named "Fodera." 😁 I play and enjoy both fretted and fretless basses (I consider them to be different instruments), and with the exception of my piccolo basses, all of my axes are strung with either flatwound or tapewound strings--yeah, I know, pretty old school. Equally old school is the fact that all of my basses are passive instruments, with the exception of the Foderas (but I almost never engage the active preamps on those guys). In terms of bass philosophy or emphasis, I strive to find the tone that is appropriate to the music I'm playing, and enjoy exploring a wide range of tonal options. Similarly, I work hard to produce a bass line that fully supports the music/song that I'm playing. This can run the spectrum from very sparse parts that feature a few perfectly-placed fat notes, to bass lines where I lace up my track shoes and sprint! In both instances, my goal is to mold my playing to whatever the music demands.