What's this spot on my AVRI Jazzmaster?

[Jarvis]

I bought this guitar used about a month ago; the guy bought it in October of 2006. He babied the guitar, not a scratch on there (he also played it in A# tuning  ). Well, I just noticed this little brownish spot on my jazzmaster, take a look:





^ It's on the bottom left hand side, right across from the corner of the pillow, where I put my arm. It's not a shadow or anything, I see this spot at certain angles looking at the guitar. Is it the wood showing through a little? The start of armwear?

[greenlander]

Looks like stage one of arm wear to me. Nice looking JM! Something that nice deserves to be played a lot.

[djetz]

It's a melanoma. It'll have to be removed immediately. Fortunately, you've caught it early, before it's had a chance to metastasise. Guitar cancer is a terrible thing.

[GTO]

Ingrained dirt?

So called 'guitar polish' won't get it off, you need a mild swirl remover like 3M Finesse It.

[ohm-men]

Arm wear, that's the Nitro....Friend of mine got a AVRI Jag (same colour) and it even worsened....He play's it a LOT, so it will wear....doesn't happen with the MIJ/CIJ guitars 

[Jungleman]

My '00 AVRI Jag has a similar blackened spot. It seems dirt particles have penetrated the transparent red of its Candy Apple.

[FireAarro]

It's a melanoma. It'll have to be removed immediately. Fortunately, you've caught it early, before it's had a chance to metastasise. Guitar cancer is a terrible thing.

Don't have any spots like that on my AVRI... then again I don't really notice these sorts of things much. I have guitar stand marks.

[sookwinder]

The first CS strat I bought, I got it on a friday and by sunday some very similar spots had started like your JM.  I went away on business for 2 weeks (the strat was out of the case) and when I came back theyspots were very pronounced.

It appeared that some chemical had splashed/dripped onto the wood prior to beinging painted, and had reacted with the paint aftre being exposed to the sun.  I returned it and got a new repolacement strat.  I was informed later that they had rubbed back the finish to the wood and basically the strain/mark was there all the way.

Is this area on your JM "under" the finish ?

[BenHagerty]

Probs some arm wear, is that the original pick guard? That looks nice

[Jarvis]

Yes, it appears to be "under" the finish. It doesn't bother me so much, though I was hoping it would be armwear. Arm wear can look soooo nice. 

Ben, yeah, that's the original pick guard. As a friend of mine said, "It looks like the depths of Hell."

[fenderizer]

Something that nice deserves to be played a lot.

+1 (also on presuming the spot is from arm wear)

Greetings - the Fenderizer

[StevenO]

My jazzmaster, same colour/model/everything, gets those spots. Seems to be just built up dirt though. It's kind of hard to remove but I manage to with some water and a cloth.

What I don't like is that when the guitar gets a deep scratch, dirt and sweat gets into the scratch and you can see a small black line in it.

There are some areas on my jazzmaster that have those dark, through-finish, marks and it's mainly due to cables touching that area of the guitar's finish. Perhaps the guy was wearing some sort of fake leather jacket or odd material that reacted to the finish in that area?

[blueavenger]

There are some areas on my jazzmaster that have those dark, through-finish, marks and it's mainly due to cables touching that area of the guitar's finish.

My sunburst jazzmaster I got a few years ago arrived with black cable marks on it.  I was pretty pissed because they weren't disclosed.  Anyway I used Gibson Guitar Polish.  The one with the lacquer actually in it that claims to leave behind a little lacquer to protect the instrument.  Absolutely freakin' removed the shit out of those marks!  They were front and back from the guitar being put away with cord attached (Who the F*** does that?) and they're absolutely GONE and the guitar looks shiny and new, although I realize that's not what lots of folks are going for    I've found it does an amazing job taking care of my AVRIs.  I don't know if there's a reaction that softens the surface of the lacquer on my instrument or what, but it's removed some stuff I thought I was stuck with. 

[RumorsOFsurF]

I have guitar stand marks.

+1  Damnit!!  The guitar came with them...

[StevenO]

My jazzmaster has those orange guitar stand marks. I got $100 off of it because of them. I didn't care. I got the guitar for around $1550cdn when they usually sell for around $1800cdn.