I am sure that this has happened to us all. Convince yourself you want or need something, have the good sense to try it and find that it's not right.
Guitar Village in Farnham have an Ibanez SR755-NTF @ £568, off I go this morning to try it out. Well of course it's new - that is an unexpected problem. Not familiar looking down on a pristine bass, seems wrong for a chap of my limited abilities to be playing such a thing. It's the first 5 string I have played, the sting spacing seems a lot tighter than I expected, I know that this is a characteristic of the Ibanez range but didn't expect it to be so alien. Plus the neck pickup is closer to the neck than I like.
Spend a few mins farting around and leave happy not to have spent any money. Back to my beaten up Thunder 1A and OLP.
I brought my Hartke LH500 never having seen one, that turned out ok. To buy a bass unless it's something inexpensive, without having played it risks expensive disappointment.