Setting Opaque false on JComboBox

I've looked all over online, including all over these groups, and all
the posts on the subject are rather outdated. I'm hoping someone has
come up with a way to set a JComboBox to be transparent. I can sort of
get the dropdown button to do so (it removes the excess fill) but my
primary concern is the display line and the drop down. Even just
getting the display line would be nice.

From what I've seen, people suggest that if it is possible (this is
back in 2001, mind you) it might require a whole new look and feel.
While I'm not opposed to that, I've yet to find a L&F tutorial that I
can fully understand. Something along the lines of "make the images you
want to use for these things, then do this to implement them" would be
nice.

I've already tried breaking the JComboBox down into it's components;
there's two of them.
javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalComboBoxButton[,0,0,0x0,invalid,alignmentX=0.0,alignmentY=0.5,border=javax.swing.plaf.BorderUIResource$CompoundBorderUIResource@7f5580,flags=12583208,maximumSize=,minimumSize=,preferredSize=,defaultIcon=,disabledIcon=,disabledSelectedIcon=,margin=java.awt.Insets[top=0,left=1,bottom=1,right=3],paintBorder=true,paintFocus=false,pressedIcon=,rolloverEnabled=true,rolloverIcon=,rolloverSelectedIcon=,selectedIcon=,text=,defaultCapable=true]
javax.swing.CellRendererPane[,0,0,0x0,invalid,hidden]
The Panel is transparent, the button is not. I know how to change the
button's transparency. The problem is those components don't indicate
anything about the text box that the JComboBox uses, and that's what
I'm after.

Any ideas?

.

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