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Anyone Believe in "MOJO"

Do You Believe in "MOJO"

  • Total voters
    193
  • Poll closed .
#63
Too many TB members take everything literally.

My definition of Mojo doesn't mean magical powers, special voodoo, etc.......

Some basses sound better than others, and it would be hard to replace if you had to buy the same model bass or a different model with equal tone!
 
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#64
Gilmourisgod said:
The most commonly accepted definition of mojo, as applied to expensive old guitars, seems to be a liberal encrustation of dead skin cells, skin oil, and other DNA material, rust, and disintegrating nitrocellulose laquer. This encrustation is highly valuable, apparently, though in other contexts, its referred to as "grime", "filth" or, more charitably, "patina". Some people are willing to pay large quantities of money to have an artificial form of this applied to brand new guitars to simulate years of smoky bar experience, simulated "woodshedding", etc., a practice I find inexplicable. Personally, I have never found the appearance of a particular bass to have much to do with how it sounds, though I do appreciate the look of a true survivor, with honestly acquired wear and tear. There are lots of crappy old guitars, and lots of crappy new ones. On balance, I think the current crop of basses is still far better made and finished than the vast majority of the old high dollar mojo-encrusted time travelers.
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You are way off base! Who said anything about a bass having to be old and worn to have mojo?
My bass was made in 1997 and I purchased it earlier this year. The condition of my 1997 bass is 99.9% new condition!
I actually paid $550 less than what a 2015 Fender Am. Deluxe jazz cost.

It's a new bass to me that happen to have been built in 1997.
 
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#66
The concept of 'mojo' doesn't have to be unscientific. They may be little variables and their combinations that we have not yet been able to zero in on, that contribute to the characteristic sound of an instrument. That being said, I can't help but think that people paying $8000 for 'vintage' instruments that were built in production lines are paying for something other than the sound and feel of the instrument.
 
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#70
Kmonk said:
I don't believe in "mojo" in the sense of how most people use the word. I have played basses of the same model which sound better than others.
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Exactly. No two pieces of wood are exactly the same, and no two instrument are assembled exactly the same. Sometimes it all works, sometimes it doesn't. Age is irrelevant unless some dent somewhere is the difference between resonance and not. That's highly unlikely, but I won't reject it out of hand.
 
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#71
Yes. While in my friends music store, I noticed him hanging a freshly set-up instrument. He turned to me and said that I'd want to try 'this one', and that he'd never played a *****(brand) like the one he was hangin. He's not a salesman, and never pitched a sale to me so I took heed.
I played it and bought it on the spot. Never have I played a stringed instrument like it. Never then or again. I let others play it, but had to stop bcuz everyone kept coveting it by asking to borrow or offering to buy it. 2 people offered me $300 over my purchase price. Still I won't sell. It looks absolutely stunning, plays easily (scary easy) and sounds like all stars and planets were aligned perfectly during its creation. And everyone who I've let play it has felt some type of attraction to it. Yea....mojo's real.
If you never felt it you'll never know, cuz only those who feel it know it.
Believing and Knowing are different.
 
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#72
firechariot said:
Yes. While in my friends music store, I noticed him hanging a freshly set-up instrument. He turned to me and said that I'd want to try 'this one', and that he'd never played a *****(brand) like the one he was hangin. He's not a salesman, and never pitched a sale to me so I took heed.
I played it and bought it on the spot. Never have I played a stringed instrument like it. Never then or again. I let others play it, but had to stop bcuz everyone kept coveting it by asking to borrow or offering to buy it. 2 people offered me $300 over my purchase price. Still I won't sell. It looks absolutely stunning, plays easily (scary easy) and sounds like all stars and planets were aligned perfectly during its creation. And everyone who I've let play it has felt some type of attraction to it. Yea....mojo's real.
If you never felt it you'll never know, cuz only those who feel it know it.
Believing and Knowing are different.
Click to expand...

You get it, I love your quote at the end! :hyper::)
 
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#73
Of the eight I have all have it cept for a 78 BOO Musicman that never had a glimmer of it . Bought it new, probably 1000 gigs and not 1/100 of the MOJO the $200 Squier CV has. Don't know why I kept it outside of sentiment

On other side the Alleva MOJO screamed second I saw it at BSD...
 
#74
Joe Nerve said:
There is obviously more than one definition of mojo. I always thought it to mean something of a spiritual nature. The history that some believe somehow becomes a part of the wood, metal, plastic and electronics. A 60s P bass that was handmade in a factory by some guy in a headband, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, which got bought by an excited 15 year old during the summer of love in San Fransisco, got played by Geezer Butler one time when he showed up at a cover band's gig of the second owner, toured all of Europe with a disco band that was happening in 1980, then survived a house fire, car crash, and skateboard accident while under the loving ownership of some kid who wound up being the first bass player for Sheryl Crow. Then got sold on eBay and landed in the current owners lap.

If the person who owns that bass can't play, it's going to sound like crap.

I also believe that if you believe it has mojo, then it absolutely does. If you don't, then it absolutely doesn't.
Click to expand...

I just love this post.
 
#75
Visual mojo? Absolutely. Sonic mojo? That gets more subjective. You play five basses that are the same and one sounds better. Is it true mojo or are the strings fresher? I guess that I've played basses that were just dead sounding, so the flip side must be true and certain basses have a lucky coincidence of wood/pickups/construction that makes that bass have "mojo".
 
#77
It's not in the bass. It's in the interaction or relationship.

You pick it up and want to keep playing it. You put it down and want to pick it up again.
You play something and get the exact response you want from it.

You pick up another one and can take it or leave it. You play the same thing with the same
technique, and it just doesn't respond the same way.

So you go back for the mojo.
 
#80
I think literally every time I have played a bass that someone described to me as having "mojo", it had two particular qualities.

1. It was a well assembled instrument.
2. It had an above average (average = factory) setup.

I've got so many friends who have instruments that aren't setup at all and are basically unplayable. I had someone offer to buy my MIM J bass, because it was the best playing bass they'd ever played... aka the only professionally setup bass they'd ever played.
 
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