dye job oddity

[sidotij]

Evening everyone,

Ben suggested I pose this questions here.
I recently picked up 2 kits, a bass for me and a guitar for a buddy.

His build is going a tad smoother than mine.

I did a sand to 220 and I'm using Keda alcohol dye.
As you can see in the pic there is an area that is just not taking stain

I let it dry for a couple days and sanded everything back, in case I did a less than awesome job there.
After the second coat there was no change

The back, on the other hand, looks awesome after just one coat

Any ideas or suggestions or thought on what is going on?

Thanks

John