Updating the Bond Electraglide with modern electronics

Earlier this year I bought a Bond Electraglide guitar. The Electraglide was the Delorean of the guitar world, an 80′s dream of a future instrument that sadly crashed and burned because the idea outreached the technology of the time.

The guitar had many innovations, fully electronic internals with a digital read out, a completely original fretboard with stepped aluminium ridges instead of frets and a composite body that although not carbon fibre is similar in look and feel.

Unfortunately the Bond cost too much to make and although an intriguing design that used high quality components, it was a financial failure. It was unreliable, with the outboard power supply often failing and guitars being robbed of parts to get others working. The case alone cost over £150K in tooling and although it was championed by the Edge from U2, Mick Jones of Big Audio Dynamite and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, it only lasted a year in production.

Only 1400 were recorded as being made, with the real number most likely under 1,000. They are closet classics, their scarcity and originality sure to make them future collector items. You can still pick one up hundreds of pounds if you are lucky, although shops sell them for thousands.

So I have one, or rather as of two weeks ago,  two. I have an original, clean and complete Bond with case and PSU and now a second Bond, with tatty case and no electronics.

So what to do with the incomplete one? My idea is simple. Using modern electronics, make the Bond what it should have been – a modern guitar. However it won’t be all digital, I love the analogue sounds of old guitars and so I want to use different pathways for audio and control.

I plan to use an Arduino for switching and OLED display control, but then use all-analogue pathways for the output of the pickups to the amp. I will use relays for signal switching and the one concession to digital control will be to use digital potentiometers to adjust tone and volume.

Once I have the basic guitar controls in place, I plan to go further with a tuner based on the Arduino and then look at other built in analogue effects, such as a tube screamer or boost. I may even extend to using EMG pickups if I can get some at a good price.

Finally, a new paint job may be in order, depending on the price again. I think a pearlescent white might be in order, or perhaps one of the colour shifting car paints.