Seeing the guitar being plugged into the wall outlet immediately made me think of Electroboom's electric guitar video.

Andrew Bond had a workshop in Poole at one point. I noticed the sign on the door (Bond Guitars), went in and spent a happy half hour listening to him describing his ideas. I think he was using aluminium for the fretboard at the time.

This was a blast from the past. So cool.

That is without dought the best and coolest looking black guitar I have ever seen. Sounds great too

I've just bought an emerald virtuo carbon fibre electric guitar, and I am amazed by the quality and complexity of it's structure. It looks gorgeous and sounds marvellous, so light. So ergonomic, and a dream to play. I wanted something different, and I certainly got it.

Anyone having that much fun is, by definition, playing perfectly.

Wow! Never seen one before. Absolutely amazing guitar. Thanks for showing this off Ben and congratulations.

I've seen one played at a festival in Chippenham in the 80's, the front row was all guitar players just checking it out, it's a shame they stopped making them, they were so cool.

So happy to see that video, I made some research for my channel, a couple of month ago, to build with a CNC, a PEEK polymer fretboard inspired by Bond's great ideas . Excellent job Mr Bond and Mr Crowe

Hi Ben, I'm sure you've figured it out by now but just in case here's how the controls work... The 5 push buttons are your pick up controls. The top 3 are on/off switches. You'll notice a green or red dot in the display in one of three positions. That indicates the status of the pick-up, on, off, in phase, out of phase is indicated by the dot being red or green and is toggled between the two settings using the lower 2 push buttons. I think that works out at around 10 possible pick-up combinations? The 3 rocker switches that display numbers on the display are more of a global setting, as you can't alter the volume and tone of individual pick ups, rather you have an overall volume and tone control, So Red is Volume, Orange is Treble and Green is Bass. I've been looking after number 00709, which I rescued from ebay as a box of bits back in the 90's. I'm placed to say she has a few scares but still plays, sounds and looks beautiful. I was 16 when these came out, I remember looking through a music shop window in Inverness and seeing one hanging there bathed in light with an angels choir "Ahhhh" ring in my ears.

Absolutely phenomenal instruments, I definitely plan to come visit her in the museum one day. It's a long journey from Canada hehe but one I intend to make. I am so grateful that the fan arranged this with you so we all can experience the joy of you opening that case for all of us to see. Magnificent video as always Ben! 😄

You know when you give your dog a new toy how excited and bouncy they get….yeah that was Ben trying to open that box 🤣

I had one of those. I bought it after seeing Mick Jones play one at an early BAD gig. I had it for about 20 years and only stopped playing it as at a gig someone nicked the electric box that ran it. Loads of guitarists would ask about it at gigs I did and would want a go on it. Sam, Chippenham

What an amazing addition to the library/museum.

Very Cool :). Makes my Parker Fly look like yesterdays news :). Looking forward to a more in depth on the thing. Best Regards!

That thing is so unique I never knew a guitar like that existed, I can’t wait to see the insides😮 that cornford sounds great.

loving the excitement in the room as everyone is checking out these guitars! great content lads, looking forward to seeings sams luthier teardown on that beast and as always bens antics :D

Crow and Bond; the pefect comic double act, especially when gaffa tape is involved!

I think you did the right thing by turning it on at Crimson HQ - where you're surrounded by people who may be able to help with electrical gremlins. And you were aware that the power supply being between your legs as you switched it on may not have been the best idea :) That display is just the coolest of retro-tech now. I still love the fretboard idea and I wonder if it could be done in stainless or some other alloy that would not wear down for a decade or two of playing. I can't wait to see the full teardown on it - I want to see what lies beneath those covers.

before my life goes away... i have to have played a gutar that you made... you are amasing

"Knight Rider and Kitt" I got that reference. Guess I'm old as well.

I just love how excited u get..lol

I really did not expect it to sound that good!

Awsome guitar ,,, but the suspense,lol, we need to now call you Alfred,,, more suspense than an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Really enjoyed that, looking forward to the tear down and rebuild.

I've wanted a Bond Electraglide ever since they first came out- they are just so cool! I couldn't afford one then and I've since made a solemn vow not to buy any more guitars so I'll never own one, but I took great vicarious pleasure in see this unboxing. I would have been just as excited if it had been me. Looking forward greatly to the teardown- I want to know what's inside and what all the buttons do! I think Rick Parfitt had one for a while.

The transformer will come off the power supply board; use a ziptie on it. LaSalle music in Boston bought the remaining stock in the USA. I believe production was way lower than 1400 units due to so many defective units. I've two mint electraglides for 35 years. Believe they still work :-)

a modern interpretation of this guitar would be a cool build to see

I see the Cyberpunk guitar hanging on the wall back there. I love that one.

That’s cooler than a cool thing, with an extra-special reason to be cool !!

That reminds me. I must give you a call soon Ben.

Ben looked ecstatic

The dc/sg shape is awesome and it's great when something futuristic doesn't have to look alien! ( like electric cars look stupid) the pcb system will be amazing in that thing and to be honest it looks clean! Love it..

Never heard of those guitars but definitely cool and unique.

That's a very cool guitar! It sounds great too. Loving the guitar raffle corner and the cornford amp!!

The KNIGHT RIDER of guitars. Very cool 👍

love the channel, just a note on the teasing of the camera man for talking, a lot of youtube shows nowadays have talking camera people and it adds a lot of fun to the videos imho, wouldnt mind seeing some more interaction between ben and the camera person

You remind of my son at Christmas.

The handtool-only guitar unboxing

These should be the "behold my stuff..." series. I was like WHERES THE HUMBUCKER?! but the bridge actually has a pretty fat sound, but still...WHERES THE HUMBUCKERS?!

Wow! I remember reading about these in a TGM article back when I first started playing guitar - must have been in 1994. As I remember it a regonal development board found Bond a factory next to a Carbon Fibre plant. The only problem was that it was the "wrong" kind of carbon fibre!

I always wanted a Bond too! Crazy guitar.

I had one of these quirky buggers turn up at Sound Control Glasgow for some work just before the millenium. I'd heard all about Bond (being a Scottish tech), but damn, that fingerboard was a pain. Can't even remember what the repair was it needed, but I played the hell out of it while it was there, like all us techs do with "interesting" guitars.... Great idea, but as a tech, more than a player, it just felt way too weird to be played properly. Probably far too weird for most players to get used to at the time, thus it never caught on. Great bit of history to have around though :)

I liked how Ben absently-mindedly scratched his ear with his Leatherman......Ouch!!!!

That is one amazing guitar. I see why you like it. Now I feel challenged to reproduce the electronics for it. (Yes, I'm a bit of a mad scientist when it comes to electronics)

Would be so cool to do a modern build with a fretboard like that

Hi josh! Love the guitar. (Hi Matt!, Hi Sean!)

After Bond went defunct in the 80s, some guy bought a warehouse full of those Electraglides. A friend bought one for £150 as an investment - he didn't play guitar but thought it'd be worth money in the future. I'd play it now and again but thought it sounded pretty awful to be honest. From memory, if you press 2 or all 3 of the pickup selector buttons together then press either of the buttons that are below/between them, you flip the phase - Brian May, here we come. This was all decades ago but I think I'm right in saying 5 on the scale is equivalent to 10 on a regular guitar volume/tone pot so anything 6-9 is like a boost. If I can remember anything else that's useful, I'll let you know!

Watching you open that box was like watching my boys open their Xmas presents 🎁 😄 TBH I'd be the same cause that is glorious. I love different and interesting. Please employ a security guard on the museum cause erm.....I might be tempted if I visit .....sorry it's not in my nature but wow 😍

That's really cool!

Finally. a guitar with a proper dashboard.

FYI, the five pushbuttons arranged in the "piano keyboard layout" of a row of three, with the two buttons above, are for pickup switching, acting as a digital 5 position switch from what I could tell. the three rocker switches are digital volume controls for the three pickups, and supposedly, there is also a way to digitally control the tone of each pickup independently through a combination of button pushes, using the same individual volume controls. a very unique, and ahead of it's time instrument. I wonder why nobody, or no company has sought to bring this guitar design back into production today. with the miniaturization of electronic components, I would believe that a guitar very similar to this could be made much more electronically efficiently, potentially eliminating the entire need for the external battery pack, and instead using a removable "cell phone battery pack" as a power supply (Something not available when this guitar was available) I'm sure the motherboard that consumes a great portion of the back of the guitar could be easily shrunk down to fit inside a relatively average sixed control cavity of today, with surface-mounted displays, and pick guard (scratch guard) mounted switching. The stepped fretboard is innovative and ground-breaking, although it seems like it would be next to impossible to perform anything similar to a fret dress and polish without actually lowering the peaks of all the frets, and essentially having the fret surface become progressively wider and wider until the instrument is unplayable and requiring the fretboard assembly be replaced. I wonder about the longevity of the aluminum fretboard assembly with steel strings, and the potential for excessive fretboard wear, especially with string bending, and having wound strings pressed against the fretboard. I wonder if using modern technology, if a stainless steel fretboard would be more feasible, and offer more longevity, as well as being able to hold a much higher polish, to reduce even more friction, for easier bending, and being a harder surface, likely better intonation and tone compared to aluminum. Definitely a design that deserves to be revisited, and reimplemented with more modern technology. Imagine a similar guitar, made today, with modern improvements including, but not limited to on-board multi-effects?! that would be absolutely game-changing.

IIRC the Edge used one of these when recording "The Joshua Tree".

I had the honour of messing around with one of these in the mid 90s that's was in an amazing guitar shop in Coogee Sydney. The place was like a museum of crazy guitars called oddly enough Guitar Crazy. I never plugged it in so I had no idea it needed an external power supply. I found sliding up the next easier then down the neck. Recently I discovered a friend of a friend says they have one that was given to them by Mr Bond himself. Hope to one day play it myself. Didn't Mick Jones for Big Audio Dynamite play one of these?

Hi Ben, I live in Aberdeen. Back in the 80s, there was an electrical store on the main street in town called Clydesdale. In this shop they sold every electrical appliance and gadget thing you could want in your home at that time. To one side of the shop, they had a small musical department. Every Saturday my friend (a former student of Crimson Guitars) and I would go round all the music shops in Aberdeen. I can remember being in this shop, probable around 1984,85. They had a Bond Electraglide on one of the guitars stands for sale. We said, "that's one of those guitars with no frets that the guy from Big Audio Dynamite plays, what happens when you ware out the frets"? I know now. Anyway, my point is, you said that your Electraglide came from the Aberdeen area. I was wondering, could that have been your actual guitar? I know we'll never know for sure, but it's the only one I ever saw for sale and I visited alot of guitar stores at that time. Just thought I'd pass this story on to you. Could be where your Electraglide was originally sold. Great video, took me back.

"Made in U K by Bond", a beautiful piece of retro-tech.

I know exactly how you feel! I have one myself!

I have two things to say. First, that Bond is freakin' cool! Second, there are tools missing from the board and it's making my OCD itch like crazy!

The issue with the stepped fingerboard is that it fast up the board and slower down as your fingers are hindered by the ledges. played the original import to Australia.......

That is a really good looking guitar.

Friggin Cool!

Very unique instrument !

Is it bad that I'm more excited about the Mustang ? 🤔

I remember reading thereviews when these came out and I thought they were 'interesting', but the only one I have actually seen was in my local guitar store (the sadly missed Musical Exchanges in Birmingham) 30+years ago. They had a second hand one for sale for I think about £400. I was tempted because I thought one day they would be sought after but in the end I left it.

Awesome! 🤘👍

I’m sure Mick Jones of Big Audio Dynamite had one 🤷‍♂️

Wow...... That is cool

An amazing guitar - will Crimson be offering a KITT? ;)

Interesting instrument. I have an Alembic with an adjustable nut like that - this is the only other instrument I've seen that on. It's an excellent idea that I'm surprised hasn't really caught on outside of the boutique market.

If you need another Bond I have one, it's parts and spares only though as someone did DIY to the circuit board to add midi

Mick Jones used one with Big Audio Dynamite in the 80s. I think he still owns 1 or 2.

One of these was knocking around the guitar shops in Glasgow not long ago - either that or two shops wound up with one at almost the same time. Didn’t have spare pennies at the time so never plucked up the courage to go give it a try in case I decided I liked it ! Didn’t The Edge have one around the time of The Joshua Tree ?

Hi Ben. I have a raw body and neck blank for one of these. No fretboard unfortunately. It would be interesting to see what you could do with it.

"Every time you try and operate one of these weird black controls that are labeled in black, on a black background, a little black light lights up in black to let you know you have done it."

Hey Ben...if you're interested I've acquired an oddball 80's something Cort Effector ....it has built in effects..and all hardware , nothing missing, and all push buttons work,only 1 is a little sticky.would love to send a picture if you could supply a link to do so thanks,for the museum

The most 80s Japanese (back to the future) guitar made in .... Scotland. --- Scotland!!

My brother owns the prototype and another. I bought one as part of the deal too but have never played it due to the absence of a power supply They are like honest politicians, rare and unreliable. There are rumours of remade/improved power supplies being available soon.

The five buttons represent the positions on a Strat selector. The three rockers represent the three knobs on a Strat. Also, do you want another one?

Here's a good idea guitar case restoration?

the usual problem was the power supply developed problems, I think if it came running off batteries or the electrical problems had been solved, before production, it would have been a smash! but a lot like the synthaxe, it was just way too advanced for the electronics at the time, the syntheses had latency problems on the midi system, and the only way around it was to make all the frets the same length?? ita AMAZING, CONCEPT IN A GUITAR, HATS OFF TO ANDREW BOND BUT IT WASNT TO BE! AND BUILT IN SCOTLAND!

Sky guitar next ? Another one with external power supply...and lots of frets 😀

Yeah that's pretty cool.

So Mr Crowe, on a scale of 1 to 11, how much are you enjoying your job at the moment? :D That power supply reminded me of the ones that used to come with computers around the same time, Commodore and Atari both used big chunky transformer based power bricks with that same off-white colour.

Only place I ever recall seeing one used was by Big Audio Dynamite on Top Of The Pops...... and wanted one ever since!! Just a guess here but, do you think that maybe the bunch of five buttons will be for N/M/B and the associated "inbetween" sounds (N/M and M/B}? And the rocker switches sounded as if they were Volume, Treble and Bass like a regular active set up. Be interesting see if my guess is right..... At least. that's how I would've set it up anyway..... 🤣🤣

Very cool

Jubbly!!

beautiful!!!!!!

Man this is a neat one lol

What about the Revstars? I have one (the new model) and it doesn't need any external power supply.

Has james been told... of the, bond? and could you imagine what may happen with the bridge turned to 7

I have a complete original fully functional Electraglide, my pick guard is lifting anyone have a source ? Or if anyone knows what the exact material is I can lift the original and scan it and cut one on a Roland plotter/cuter/ printer. Great video, thanks in advance for any help. Ed

If i remember correctly, doesn't the two lower pickup selectors turn on the 2nd & 4th positions as on a regular 5-way switch?

Cool as hell

Sweet

Can someone around here maybe help me understand something? I have an 80s GTX 23 made by Applause and I lost the nut. Local shop said it would cost $100 USD to make a new one out of bone but the original nut was more like black plastic. Is this truly worth the price ? I’m finding other plastic nuts on places like Stew Mac for 10x less. I understand quality workmanship but I feel like there is another option out there.

Does it need a speaker cable instead of a guitar cable to carry the power?

Really dig the pickup switch

When's the other Les Paul, and the SG coming up for raffle?

More talking with Tommy the camera man please :)

I'm not feeling it Ben. Gimme some wood please haha

Ben has never seen Duct Tape?