How do YOU make sure you're not buying a lemon...

[JIO]

Yeah, but most players I know of, really doesn't care for the neck dive, they play their basses just as well, so they don't consider it to be a lemon. As it is, say any Fender Precision or Jazz bass, now and then, very rarely, it can occur with a heavier body that doesn't neck dive at all. Brand new one. And if I encounter such a specimen, I'll say "Hey this is the first P or J bass that I don't consider a lemon". Hooray! Chances are that Fender didn't even think twice about this, it's just a fluke on my part. Same with dead spots. If one should happen to stumble over any P or J bass that doesn't have this C sharp dead spot in the g-string... well, not a lemon. But that's a fluke. That item can still neck dive though...;-)

Most Moses graphite necks I've come across have been lemons. Other people are happy campers with them. Still, what's a lemon for you ain't a lemon for me. Maybe a gripe...oh, grape it's called!

Sorry, puns aside. But I tell you one thing. If you've asked me 25 years ago, I probably wouldn't be able to understand any talk of, these "dead spots" or "neck dive" or playability, or Mojo. I was a happy camper with most anything. As you get experienced, all such things dawns on you, very slowly, and you turn into that cork sniffing prickly nitpicker with an eagle eye for detecting all gnarls within a split second. Or lemon sniffing. You can't help but hone it during the years.

Again, well put. As I first replied, 'lemon' is in word usage/linguistics territory. Think of it like this; aside from ones belief in it or not - there's the concept of MOJO. Some can list the reasons a bass has MOJO but a lot of it comes down to something undefinable, a quality or specialness - "this bass has MOJO" one replies - while another replies.., "if you say so". So somewhat subjective in the end but possibly many more people will side with one view or the other resulting in consensus. "it is widely accepted that this bass has MOJO".

In the way you initially presented the concept "lemon", (which I agree with) it is pretty much the opposite of MOJO. Nothing special about a lemon other than not being what the sum total of parts should result in, for some undefinable reason. Same tests can be performed and a consensus can be reached.

Your last point is also a good one about becoming ultra critical. It's inevitable as you say, the result of years of use and preferences. It's somewhat a curse, but also a blessing when one really knows what they want.

 

[Honch]

Yeah the thing is to recognize this, and not let it bother you. If some noob or newbie on bass is telling me that they'd bought their bass of their dreams, I am definitely not going to scold them for buying a lemon. And be that strutty about it, and immediately point out the flaws on it, and sort of coming with snide remarks. You just have to remember how you were/was yourself when you were young and starting out. You didn't care that lot about that stuff. So I'd better let it go.

Instead I encourage the youngster to go on with his/her playing, and bother of these things much later down the road. Ok, it has to hold up tune, and intonate, but neck dive, dead spots and whatnot, you shouldn't care less. You just have to start somewhere, and as you go along discover these things for yourself.

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More often than not, these youngsters/newbies has chosen their first bass, while trying out quite a few of the other ones in a music store. And this one, that they chose, had that Mojo - to them. I e it "played" and felt better than the other ones. So they are - so to speak - unaware of the ins and outs of any bass, and just selects it by the comparable feel to all the other basses they've tried out.