What is this Mojo, what is that then?

robgilmo

Ive often heard guitars described as having Mojo, what is that then? Is it an aged guitar, how it playes, sounds, looks, feels, is it even a thing? Help me understand this could be thing thayt is Mojo.

StormshadowGuitars

It's a term mainly used by Snake Oil Salesmen to sell things to Idiots

merlin

It's when you have a really tiny penis and a very old guitar. Or a very old penis and a tiny guitar, I can't quite remember which. Maybe both. Or neither. 

Mostly, who cares? Can you play?

robgilmo

With my penis? Yes , yes I can.

What are you wearing?

Funkfingers

Originally, a talisman connected with superstition.

Then, slang for various things of no relevance to the OP question.

Eventually, code for some indefinable quality that all the guitars you already own do not have but the one the salesperson is offering, somehow, does.

Come to think of it, in the context of selling electric guitars, mojo is still connected with irrational beliefs and superstition. 

Stormshadow wins.

SimonC

robgilmo

The word will never cross my lips again!

I still want to know what kind of underpants Merlin is wearing!

Bridgehouse

I love a good Mojo, me.

Mrs B gets me some quite often as a treat. 

My underpants are black.

HarrySeven

Funkfingers said:

Eventually, code for some indefinable quality that all the guitars you already own do not have but the one the salesperson is offering, somehow, does.

Indeed. Spot-on.

However, my least favourite use is by bullshitters to tell you that the attributes below actually add value to the POS they are peddling:

*Knackered frets
*Badly-battered finish
*Non-functional circuitry
*Warped neck
*Non-original aspects
*Hideous amateur relic job
*Generally butchered

(combine or delete as applicable)
 

Winny_Pooh

When your guitar is possesed by ghouls and sounds it too. Do not pick any with an erectile dysfunction ghoul, easy to spot:

richardhomer

It’s something we seem to have imported from The Gear Page, unfortunately. I know Muddy Waters’s Telecaster had it because after he repaired it, he wrote ‘Got My Mojo Working’....

I don’t actually know what it is though - a bit like gun ownership - you probably need to be American to fully understand it....

HAL9000

Muddy Waters got his working.

(Which is more than can be said for Teresa May and her BoJo.)

skaguitar

Only the owner of a guitar can decide if it has mojo..it's a guitar that he goes to first because of the way it plays..sounds and feels.and a guitar he or she will never sell. .. so the mojo only exists between that particular player and that particular guitar...the mojo can't be sold to the next owner..

ICBM

It's basically the same as Parcelforce insurance - it costs 50% more than the value of whatever has it, but is actually worth nothing.

WezV

So are we never allowed to use the word?  

Its relatively harmless.

 For me it’s a whole state of mind when stuff just works and the creativity juices are flowing.

  It’s a personal thing, not a definable attribute of any instrument.  Gear is part of it when the gear is inspirational 

Neil

WezV said:

So are we never allowed to use the word?  

Its relatively harmless.

 For me it’s a whole state of mind when stuff just works and the creativity juices are flowing.

  It’s a personal thing, not a definable attribute of any instrument.  Gear is part of it when the gear is inspirational 

Agreed.

Abstract feelings are always difficult/impossible to put into words so I guess Mojo is as good as any. 

Plectrum

A mojo is a voodoo love charm.

impmann

The only Mojo I have any time for are Mojo Pickups - absolutely superb.

57Deluxe

Mojo is a fictitious state of Banjo

SNAKEBITE

It is akin to the "Emperor's new clothes".

There are certain objects, guitars, tools, bikes, cars etc that I instantly bond with. This bond cannot be rationally summarised, but somehow makes it more valuable to me. If I were to use the term, then this is what it would be used for.

As for being told by someone else that it has mojo, well that's not how it works.

JayGee

It’s a positive subjective response to a broad range of sometimes mutually incompatible, often subliminal, occasionally non-physical[1] phenomena.

Personally, while I’m deeply suspicious of anybody claiming to be selling it I’m actually somewhat of a believer. Some things just make me feel better, more relaxed, more comfortable, more positive, and sometimes more inspired about my playing  for no obvious reason, and, while I can’t speak for anyone else) when that happens I practice more and (possibly as a result of the extra practice) I sound better, and I play better.

Mojo’s as good a word for it as any other...

[1] e.g. previous ownership, and history.