Purpleheart

A dense South American hardwood that is genuinely purple when freshly cut, sold for fingerboards and thin caps.

It comes from Peltogyne species in tropical America and is heavy, hard and stiff with excellent wear resistance, which is why it works as a fingerboard despite being an unusual thing to look at. Its colour is both its signature and its problem: the vivid purple oxidises towards brown over months in daylight, so a new instrument and a year-old one look quite different. It is commonly described as bright and clear with a hard, quick attack and a firm bottom, closer to maple or ebony than to rosewood. It blunts tooling, and the dust can irritate the skin.

Example: A purpleheart fingerboard gives a striking instrument when new, and quietly turns brown over the first year of playing.

typical use: Fretboards, thin caps and decorative parts.

Purpleheart

See also