"Rounds eat fretless"...an old wives' tale?
 

Has anyone had to have their fretboards refinished (or even replaced) for playability purposes, as opposed to purely cosmetic ones, when using rounds?

Thanks.

Not an old wives tale. I ruined a beautiful rosewood fingerboard using rounds. Yes, it was refinished, but really for cosmetic purposes...it realy didnt impact the playability of the bass. But that bass wont ever be tortured with rounds ever again. Cross my heart.

Rounds ate all of my fretless boards, but it was worth it for the tone, IMO!

It really depends on your playing style. Do you press down really hard and pluck aggressively? If so, then any metal string will cause grooves to form, a little more so with rounds. It's metal on wood - not a fair matchup no matter how you slice it. A lighter touch will certainly help lessen the impact. My fretless basses are fine after a few years, and there are guys who have touted using rounds for over a decade with no ill results.

Rounds eat frets and in the absence of frets they eat fingerboards simple as that.

I have only played 2 fretlesses with rounds on. 1 had deep grooves where the strings were and the other started getting scratches in the fingerboard that have yet to be removed by the groundwounds I have on it.

So yeah, roundwounds do chew fretless fingerboards IME.

Any metal is going to chew up the wood in time. Round wire wraps are just going to do it a lot faster.

Heavy handed players and small or soft frets are a problem with rounds over time. Choose bass mfg who use qaulity frets intead of soft ones and the problem of rounds on frets become much much less. Jumbo frets rather then traditional or banjp size frets also show less wear. lastly, learn lighter fretting if your heavy handed. That not only reduces wear a lot but also imo greatly improves tone and playing nuances sound wise.

They may make marks on the board, but the nickel strings have not dug grooves in my board.

Depends on the fingerboard wood too. Ebony is harder than rosewood, so won't show as much wear. Hardening the fingerboard with cyanoacrylic ("super glue") or epoxy will help as well.