Not much to add....all great advice as always from great folks here...

If you paid less than $150 for your Violin, it's VERY possible that it is a dyed hardwood fingerboard. Just look underneath the fingerboard over the upper bout, is it white underneath? Anyways, if it is, you're fingers will continually get black a little, but you won't notice it on the fingerboard for some time. If so, it's ok, most likely as you improve, you'll upgrade to something better before you could ever wear out the fingerboard on that Violin if it is dyed hardwood and not Ebony anyways.

Another issue is, if your getting black fingertips and using steel strings ( if it's NOT a dyed fingerboard ) than this probably means your pressing down WAY to hard on the strings, which isn't a good thing playing the Violin. This is another potential cause of you getting black fingertips. Your fingers are pushing soo hard into the strings that either their turning black because it's dyed, OR, your tarnishing the fingertips because of too much pressure.

You only need a very slight amount of pressure to push the strings to the floor on your fingerboard and it's easy to do ( overpush. Otfentimes it comes from gripping the neck too tightly as opposed to supporting it between the "V" of the thumb and first finger. Only you can nswer this though if this is actually an issue. Have you considered a shoulder-rest? I found I was pressing the strings down too hard but as soon as I got a shoulder rest, I was able to loosen my grip on the neck alot and suddenly I felt I was able to play much more easily, better intonation, and, I don't have nearly as hard callouses or like dirty streaks in my fingers.

Fiddlerman said
Real Ebony is frequently dyed as well since it's color and quality differ greatly. Ebonized would is something else and can usually be identified by its grains, looking under the fingerboard and it's weight which is hard to do when it's glued down The Ebonized fingerboard can still be painted underneath though.

Actually that's right....thanks for pointing that out. My Gliga in the beginning, I got a little dark colored dust on my fingers from the Ebony fingerboard until it was broke in and got really shiny, now it doesn't dirty my fingertips anymore. Lower grade Ebony is sometimes called "Snorkeling Ebony" I've read ( I dunno why ) but it can have some heavy grain fluctuations and be a bit discolored with grey streaks and even brown streaks. So I've heard they'll dye it to make it more uniformly black no?

I've seen some REALLY nice intermediate level Chinese Violins like this. I REALLY like it actually and wish they'd leave it as I'm a big fan of wood and intresting grains but alas, the market demands the standard!

Fiddlerman have you ever seen any Violin fingerboards of East Indian Rosewood? I have seen a few benchmade Fiddles ( folk stuff, not classical ) with curly maple fingerboards that looked nice. They say they're pretty hard after they've been treated and that they make good Fiddle fingerboards too. Although, I've also read that the fingerboard can affect the sound and timbre as well, more so than I realized...so there's a reason good Ebony is the standard.

Fiddlerman said
I haven't seen the Indian Rosewood fingerboards but perhaps they are dyed as well.
Wonder how a carbon fiber or composite type fingerboard would make the violin sound......

Good question....

Considering that they've had very positive results with complete CF Violins, I think it has potential.

Their are alternative woods, hardwoods, even stateside that make VERY good fingerboards. Like "Persimmon" it's SUPER dense ( used to make Golf club heads out of it ) but it's ugly if not dyed ( kinda yellowish beige color ) and also Ironwood or Locust up in the eastern US. Plentiful and can be easily quarter sawn for Violin fingerboards.