Bond Guitar(apologies if you've heard this)

DulcetJones

I came across one of these at a local pawn shop, never heard of them.  Some kind of composite body, works as a normal electric or through a maze of electronics in the body, and look at the picture to see the "frets".  They told me they were only produced in 1984-85 and this one is mint and pricey($1600.00 CAN).  The neck was really impressive,  I'm surprised they never caught on.   There is lots of info online, google, youtube etc.... 

HarrySeven

Yup, got a few of these.

https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/bond-electraglide-guitar/

Moominpapa

"Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?"

"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to rock out."

Sassafras

Refrets should present a challenge.
I hope the neck's a  replaceable bolt-on.

ICBM

DulcetJones said:

works as a normal electric or through a maze of electronics in the body

*Only* works through the 'maze of electronics', unless modified. The power supply tends to be unreliable too, in my experience - I've been asked to make several replacement ones.

DulcetJones said:

They told me they were only produced in 1984-85 and this one is mint and pricey($1600.00 CAN).

About £900. Way too much.

A chap I know had a mint one, which he'd had since the 80s. He thought it was worth a lot and was trying to get a grand for it for years and years. He did eventually sell it for £500 I think.

DulcetJones said:

The neck was really impressive,  I'm surprised they never caught on.

I'm not...

The edges of the steps on the 'pitchboard' wear very quickly, looking unsightly and making it sound like a sort of crap electric sitar.

Sassafras said:

Refrets should present a challenge.
I hope the neck's a  replaceable bolt-on.

Nope. The neck is set, although they do often suffer from cracking of the composite around the joint.

The only sensible way to fix them is to remove the entire 'pitchboard' and fit a conventional fretted fingerboard. Jimmy Moon in Glasgow did at least one like that which I've seen.

Just a whole host of bad ideas shoehorned into one package, which might have looked modern in a sort of Tomorrow's World way in about 1982, but was hopelessly clunky in practice and only actually got into production supported by a government business development grant to help provide employment in the north of Scotland.

To be fair, The Edge and Mick Jones did use them for a bit, The Edge on some of the Joshua Tree. So possibly not a *total* failure...

Maynehead

Which button do I press to activate the truss rod spear gun?

StuartMac290

I had one. It was pish.

stonevibe

Luckily Henry never got his version off the ground with Gibson...

Bigsby

ICBM said:

About £900. Way too much.

A chap I know had a mint one, which he'd had since the 80s. He thought it was worth a lot and was trying to get a grand for it for years and years. He did eventually sell it for £500 I think.

DulcetJones said:

The neck was really impressive,  I'm surprised they never caught on.

I'm not...

The edges of the steps on the 'pitchboard' wear very quickly, looking unsightly and making it sound like a sort of crap electric sitar.

I did see one pop up in the used gear at guitarGuitar - perhaps just over a year ago. It was listed for an extraordinarily optimistic £2,000, so I figured it would be entertaining to see how long they were stuck with it. But it disappeared very quickly -  I've no idea what they got for it. Until then, I'd figured they were about the £500 mark if in reasonable nick.

I did own one in the 80s - I actually liked it a lot for the versatility when recording. I don't think I ever gigged with it. In the end it got traded in for £300 when I needed a back up Strat for gigs. Even back then I suspected it would be a struggle to keep it in working order in the long term. 

I do think it's a shame that they didn't survive longer - at that point guitars did still seem to be evolving, with Super Strats dominating the market, and the Bond Electraglide had picked up a few big name players. But I guess, in the longer term, the market was heading back to more traditional instruments, and they probably would've gone under at some point.

Henrytwang

I was totally uninterested in these guitars when they were first released. I’m even less interested now . I guess that I’d probably pay about £50 for one at a car boot sale in the hope of selling it on to a mug on eBay for a handsome profit.

Strangefan

ICBM said:

DulcetJones said:

works as a normal electric or through a maze of electronics in the body

*Only* works through the 'maze of electronics', unless modified. The power supply tends to be unreliable too, in my experience - I've been asked to make several replacement ones.

DulcetJones said:

They told me they were only produced in 1984-85 and this one is mint and pricey($1600.00 CAN).

About £900. Way too much.

A chap I know had a mint one, which he'd had since the 80s. He thought it was worth a lot and was trying to get a grand for it for years and years. He did eventually sell it for £500 I think.

DulcetJones said:

The neck was really impressive,  I'm surprised they never caught on.

I'm not...

The edges of the steps on the 'pitchboard' wear very quickly, looking unsightly and making it sound like a sort of crap electric sitar.

Sassafras said:

Refrets should present a challenge.
I hope the neck's a  replaceable bolt-on.

Nope. The neck is set, although they do often suffer from cracking of the composite around the joint.

The only sensible way to fix them is to remove the entire 'pitchboard' and fit a conventional fretted fingerboard. Jimmy Moon in Glasgow did at least one like that which I've seen.

Just a whole host of bad ideas shoehorned into one package, which might have looked modern in a sort of Tomorrow's World way in about 1982, but was hopelessly clunky in practice and only actually got into production supported by a government business development grant to help provide employment in the north of Scotland.

To be fair, The Edge and Mick Jones did use them for a bit, The Edge on some of the Joshua Tree. So possibly not a *total* failure...

So you're a big fan then?

ICBM

Strangefan said:

So you're a big fan then?

Yes. An excellent way to learn about how *not* to build the ‘guitar of the future’.

I didn’t even list all the faults!

vimagery

vimagery

Lots of people talk about wear but I haven't seen one 

jpfamps

A couple of other observations.

The power supply does not conform to modern safety standards. When I've had to make replacements I've got the customer to get an off-the-shelf power supply and I've made mounted the correct connectors in a Hammond box.

The volume adjustment is controlled by 6 buttons which allow the volume to be adjusted from 0 to 999 indicated on a digital display. The 6 buttons for volume adjustment simply up and down for each digit, which is not very practical for adjusting volume on the fly.

thegummy

What other things did the maze of electronics do?

ICBM

thegummy said:

What other things did the maze of electronics do?

Nothing much. On/off for each pickup and phase for the neck and bridge, and 0-9 for volume, treble and bass. It's not programmable and you can't save settings, and they reset to 0 when you turn the power off.

A really pointlessly complicated and unnecessary way of doing something that could be done simpler and better with three mini-toggle switches and three knobs, even if you want active circuitry.

Funkfingers

Obsolete technology ... of interest to only one member of this forum.

HarrySeven said:

got a few of these.

How many of 'em are complete and fully functional? Outsized fly swat mode doesn't count!

DulcetJones

Funkfingers said:

Obsolete technology ... of interest to only one member of this forum.

HarrySeven said:

got a few of these.

How many of 'em are complete and fully functional? Outsized fly swat mode doesn't count!

Hey, even in non-functional condition they're still a really good conversation piece.