what i've tried now:
Exporting to a new scene
Deleted the history
Checked so everything is ok at the arnold tab for the object
Tried new lights
Used JPG instead of PNG
i tried using my "woodpart" texture on the guitarbody material and i can actually see my diffuse like that. but the other channels for this are obviously not right, so the problem remains
Tried creating a new material and re-applying all the things
The weird thing is if i apply my guitarbody material for this object it renders fine. im going crazyyyyyy right now what. is. wrongggg
thanks
skalman
SOLVED!!
for some very random reason my specular map took over completely, i had a very bright (almost white) specular texture applied (which i wouldnt think was a problem, since the default specular is plain white), and weight was set to about 0.250, lowering this value makes my diffuse show as it should. I dont know why this happened, but having a more grey-like texture seems to be working better... very odd i must say
so many problems today haaaa. atleast im learning from theese mistakes 
