Ibanez MC900 Fretless Musician

[renkema]

My first post, so here goes.

I've always enjoyed playing my fretless Ibanez MC940. In fact I liked it so much I bought a MC980 to explore the 8 string sound.

The only thing I never liked about the 940 is the lack of a forearm contour. This immedicately struck me as uncomfortable when I went from my BB1000 to the ibanez as the whole "sense" of where my hand was in relation to the strings changed. I always dug Sting's playing of his Ibanez, but knew he grew up on bases with the contour (Fender, Hamer, etc.), so when I looked further, I could see his bass HAD a contour. The more I researched, I figured out that he had a fretless 900 series bass (contour, different knob config., no separate battery cavity, locking tuners), not a 940 like mine. For some reason the pre81 940s were not contoured like the 900 series (althought the post 80 version had a contour all the way around). I had one of those and did not like it (different PUs, controls, etc.)

So, my question: If I procured a MC900 fretted (as I've NEVER seen a fretless MC900 [I know Sting had several custom Ibanezs {fretless 980, maple Musician}), how hard would it be to remove the fretboard and install an unlined new ebony board? My sense is that is the only way to get the feel and sound that I like so much in my pre 81 940 but with the forearm contour that I makes playing easier (at least for me). It might be an interesting project if the parts (essentially the board) are available. I could always machine my current 940, but if I screwed up, I would be significantly reducing that bass's value.

Any thoughts??