Fretless Purple Heart board...will it work well compared to ebony?

[bassbenj]

I tend to prefer the tone of ebony fingerboards which are brighter and wear better. But that said, let me say I also own a wishbass with purpleheart and SX with rosewood boards. They are very similar. They have a really nice mellow tone and though softer than ebony I always use ground wound strings on these basses so I have no problems with wear. I prefer less wear to round wound tone (rounds will even chew ebony) so I have no problems but if you want that round wound tone, just figure that a periodic sanding of the board to sand out the grooves is just "cost of doing business". It is not that big a deal. The fact that rounds bite more into the softer wood also gives a better tone in exchange for more wear in my opinion. I think if the board is coated or soaked in epoxy or the like the above won't quite be right and it will be more like ebony.