Ibanez Musician MC-900DS fretless

The Ibanez Musician MC900 bass was one of Sting's most iconic basses, dating to the Reggatta De Blanc era (1979-1980). This is the first of the Ibanez basses Sting had.

Background
Sting's first appearance with the Ibanez fretless bass was on the RockPop TV mimed performance of "Roxanne" - filmed on 29 May 1979 - while his main bass was still the Fender Precision fretless. He'd stick to the Fender until the end of the Outlandos D'Amour tour on 23 June 1979, following which he migrated to the Ibanez as his main bass guitar.

Sting used the Ibanez bass during the Summer 1979 recording sessions at Surrey Sound Studios for the Reggatta De Blanc album. And also for the majority of live performances on the Reggatta De Blanc tour in 1979-80, with the Fender fretless as a possible backup (and other Ibanez basses later on). For a brief period in Spring 1980, the Ibanez had a rhinoceros sticker fitted to it.

With regards to the model, many sources inaccurately labelled this as an Ibanez Musician MC940 fretless. It is obviously an Ibanez Musician MC-900DS model converted to a fretless. The fingerboard has frets still visible around the top edge, which is indicative of the bass's fretted origins. The Ibanez catalogs indicate there wasn't a manufactured fretless version of MC-900...

A similar-looking Ibanez bass (clearly not Sting's but has a similar style fretless neck) is currently owned by Fabio Trentini of The Police tribute band "The Ghost Machines".