MTD Kingston Fretless Buzz? Should I grab a chisel?

[relwof]

Just picked up an MTD Kingston Z6 fretless, which I'm really enjoying so far. However, I have run into a little problem.

The Z6 has the lined Ebonol fretboard with white lines / inserts. Some of the lines (about one in four) are standing ever so slightly proud (raised) - enough that if I run my fingernail lightly down the fretboard it will "catch" on them.

The action was a little higher than I like when I got it, so I lowered the strings but now I'm getting buzz which appears to be related to the protruding inserts. The neck looks nice and straight, and there is minimal wear on the fretboard, so I'm thinking it shouldn't buzz - and most places it doesn't. The buzz only seems noticeable on or a little below the protruding "frets". The worst is the lower strings (B/E/A) at the fifth fret position - I get buzz at the third and fourth position, as well as the fifth unless I am slightly sharp.

I'm thinking a VERY careful pass or two with a nice sharp chisel perpendicular to the neck at a low angle could bring the insert level with the fretboard. But while I've got a bit of woodworking experience, I have yet to do any luthier-ish stuff.

OTOH, that's part of the reason I bought this bass - to experiment a bit and see what I can do. The body is a mess (someone tried to "refinish" it, but only got as far as taking off the finish - including the burled maple top). I was hoping to start on some nice low risk (cosmetic) jobs like replacing the "top" and making it pretty again. So I'm not shy about attempting things like this, but I do want to be careful with anything that could mar the sound or playability.

So... is this a common problem with lined fretless fretboards? And what is the best way to fix it? I'm hesitant to try sanding because I don't want to take anything off the fretboard itself (adjacent to the lines/inserts). I have some nice hand planes, but none of them are small enough that I'd feel comfortable with such a delicate operation on a radiused surface. Does taking a chisel to it sound reasonable?

Of course, I could just raise the action back up and the buzz would be gone (wasn't there until I lowered it) which would make it higher than I like, but certainly still playable.

[devo_stevo]

With the chisels you are bound to mar the fingerboard. The best solution here is to get a radiused sanding block that matches the radius of the board and sand it flat. Should work great. Good luck with the project.

[FBB Custom]

you could do spot sanding with an unradiused block to knock down high spots, but I agree, chances are good you'll need some sandpaper to clean up the marks a chisel will leave.

[relwof]

So I need something like these radius sanding blocks from StewMac?

I haven't been able to find any specs mentioning the radius on the web so far. Anyone know the radius for an MTD Kingston Z6 fretless fingerboard? Or if it's compound?

[relwof]

Never mind, just heard back from The Man himself, it's a compound radius. He did recommend sanding though, just carefully through progressive grits with a flat block followed by steel wool. We'll see how that goes, once I'm ready to stop playing it long enough to take the strings off