Do away with/Hide Emulator Keyboard?
I learnt from here (in the question, not the answer) that if one sets a custom resolution in pixels rather than selecting from the built-in ones, then the emulator does not display the skin with the emulator controls.

Below is the configuration I therefore set to solve my problem, at the same time not creating new problems:



I just estimated the dimensions in pixels of a WQVGA size instrument and set that as my custom resolution.