Hey everyone! I just got my first bass (an Ibanez EHB600) and was kinda surprised to find a weird dark splotch at the base of the neck where it connects to the body. I tried getting it off with a microfiber cloth, but it didn’t work. The neck is unstained / unpainted, so it should just look like the natural maple wood tone. To my untrained eye it looks like it could either be grime from the machining process, excess wood stain, dirt, or I guess worst case scenario, mold?
It might be scuffs from the hex wrench tool used to set the truss rod… when there is not a whole lot space for travel (like it looks to be the case here), this can happen.
I can’t imaging it is mold.
If the bass otherwise looks and plays great and sounds good, I wouldn’t worry about it a bit. Maybe try a bit of mineral oil on the microfiber cloth to better get it off.
It looks like some residue indeed. It should clean off with some specialised fretboard cleaner. Mold usually cleans off easy, but does not look like it.
Not as far fetched as it seems, it the tree was infected which is highly likely , you will see marks like that in the wood, also if the wood wasn’t dried propperly or quickly stains from green to black can appear.
