Brazilian rosewood is THE guitar tone-wood of choice. In my experience as a former guitar-salesman, former occasional builder and long-time hanger-on Indian is a mediocre substitute -- there are top-notch guitars built with Indian but they're few and far between. In contrast, it is a challenge to build a bad-sounding Brazilian rosewood guitar.
You can probably find pics at Luthiers Mercantile, Inc. There's always something nice hanging around at
www.gruhn.com and
www.elderlyinstruments.com
Brazilian rosewood was embargoed in 1969. For a while in the mid-80s it was available again, but at that point it was selling for about $200 for a two-piece back-and-sides guitar set and nobody was squandering it on DB fingerboards. Since the late 80s the CITES treaty has barred import of Brazilian rosewood and everything on the market (at ca. $600/set) is supposed to be old, cached stuff.
What that means is that unless your bass is 35+ years old you've got an Indian board for sure. If it is 35+ years old and there's no sign that the board was off, it's probably Brazilian.
My experience as a DB player is that replacing a rosewood board with a well-planed ebony board WILL improve the feel of your bass noticeably. Since much of what a piezo pickup "picks up" is the board, replacement will also improve the
amplified sound noticeably, and (perhaps less noticeably) the acoustic sound as well. I have no idea whether that translates, dollar-for-dollar, into an increase in the value of the bass.
