Tuesday 5 November 2013

BOND ELECTRAGLIDE unique TREMELO MODEL the ACTUAL one in the BOND catalogue!

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Hello my name is David and I am a G.A.S. addict.

I've always wanted one of these but I just haven't got the space for any more guitars.

I am on the G.A.S. wagon (apart from yesterday's slip up). Sorry.

The first time I saw a BOND ELECTRAGLIDE I wanted it. Oh! I wanted it!

I saw that guy from The Clash (and later Big Audio Dynamite) posing with one. I saw Dave Stewart with one. I read about it in GuitarPorn Magazine. Oh My God! I wanted one.

I put a search in Ebay for one and every now and then one popped up. The other day there was just the body and neck (no fretboard or electronics). I even drooled over that.
Today my dream came true and slowly turned into a nightmare. This story does not have a happy ending. You have been warned.

There it was £700 plus delivery. I couldn't believe it. £700. I looked around my studio. Three walls hung with guitars. A small pile of cases filled with guitars on top of cabinet. Three more under the bed. NO! No more! I can't! That was it. I was not going to succumb. I switched off the computer, had a coffee and a shower and went to work.

I could not stop thinking about it. If I sold something, I could make some space and justify a new acquisition. The price was fantastic. A real piece of history and unique in its own right.

That was it, I started checking some prices. The Baja Tele could go. I could reduce the prices on those other guitars that I've been trying to sell for the past two months. That Peavey amp I don't use. Yes! Yes! Yes! I could do it!

Ebay beckoned. I searched. No Bond Electraglide apart from the afore mentioned shell. Back to my saved search. I was sweating. It can't be. "Click!"... "This item is no longer available."

Nooooooooooooooooooo!

So, all I can do is share with you all my sad, sad story.

This is what I let slip through my fingers. Mock me, go on. I deserve it. What a damned fool!

Seven hundred quid!
Tremolo arm... OMFG!
Thing of beauty
Almost the "number of the beast"! Might as well be for all my torment.
BOND ELECTRAGLIDE
1980s Handbuilt Carbon Fibre Electric Guitar
This is an extremely rare example
it is UNIQUE in being the ONLY bond ever fitted with a tremelo system
it is the actual guitar featured in the Bond Catalogues and magazine adverts
details as follows:
SERIAL NUMBER #000328
3 X  SINGLE COIL PICKUPS
ADJUSTABLE VOLUME BASS TREBLE
Correct power supply
correct Bond stereo cable with angled jack
correct straplocks
original bond owners manual
original bond case{ condition of this is poor }

The guitar has a couple of light marks on the back of the neck which i have pictured
there are NO SPLITS OR CRACKS OR REPAIRS
THE STEPPED FINGERBOARD IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION
all the electrics work well...except the out of phase button on front two pickups is stiff
the screen lights up , all leds work
the guitar sounds superb and plays well
a true one off example with the factory fitted BOND tremelo unit
Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
The Q&A was the final knife between the shoulder blades.
Q:     does it actually stay in tune with this tremelo please?  
A:     hello, strangely yes ! the design works very well ..and because of the straight line stringing and roller saddles it behaves much better than a strat for example also the mass of the design and the fact it is so superbly engineered by schaller gives the sound good sustain and tone , i was told by the guitar guru and author and bond expert Paul Day this tremelo cost so so much to 'tool up' by andrew bond with SCHALLER that it was the tipping point for the companies finances ...and it never went into production , this remains i believe the only correct factory fitted example in existence , nice thing ! , best regards, paul
I will NEVER be the same again.

David. Forlornly blogging from Barcelona

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7 comments:

  1. I very nearly hit the buy it now button myself and Put it on my credit card but we have just had to buy a new car and my missus would have murdered me! The one that got away. The other shell listed although tempting is fairly useless as it would be unlikely you would ever find the parts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The one that got away... Mine was a three pickup (single coil) lightly engraved (i.e. only a bit around the edge) Zemetis Metal Front! Tony Z lived about 4 miles from where I live - his stuff popped up in the local shops at times. This one was in a 2nd hand place and I look at it in the window - no price on it... I was a penniless student in 1983. I wondered off. I went past on the bus frequently on my way to / from college. It went. A couple of weeks later I'm in there looking at an Small Stone Phaser that was in the window. I mentioned the metal front "Oh let that go for £250 in the end, hardly anyone interested" WHAT!!! I bought my Squier JV strat for the same money a few weeks later. DOH!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. nice check out my reviews on guitarsampseffects.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had a Bond Electraglide. Was in London for a business trip sometime in the very early 90's and on a day off, was out with a friend looking at music shops. We drove past I think it was called "Second Hand Music Exchange" (also sold records) in Notting Hill Gate. There I saw by the window, the Electraglide. I screamed at my friend to stop the car and rushed into the shop.

    There was not one, but THREE Electraglides for sale. Memory is vague now but one I think had no controls or it was passive. I bought the one that seemed the most "normal". Case and PSU included. I think it was for about the equivalent of $400~500 then. Took it home to Japan, had it for a few years. Had to sell it at one point. Then a few years after I sold it, I see it on a glossy magazine of rare/weird guitars in Japan. Oh well.

    Had a very unique sound, kinda the way it looks. Never did find a lot of use for it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeh. I can imagine it. Standing on a darkened stage looking down on a guitar so black, light cannot escape its surface. Seeing its three eyes staring up, enticing with the knowledge that this axe goes all the way to nine.

    My lost holly grail was a 1976 Ibanez Artwood 6/12 which could have made me John McLaughlin or Denny Laine depending on my mood. A one piece body in shades of blond and amber, ebony fingerboard, leaf inlays from the 22nd fret to the top of the head stock., decadent gold hardware, 12 nobs and dials.

    I was on a nine hour layover in Copenhagen and while my companions went off to enjoy the cities finer strip clubs, I browsed its guitar shops. The guitar was hanging on the wall at the back of the shop. I played it for an hour, went for lunch to work out the exchange rate and call my wife so she would have a few hours to come to terms with my latest acquisition and went back to buy it. It was gone.

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  6. Mine is without tremolo. So perhaps what I'm about to tell you won't ease your pain...
    It's good when playing chords

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  7. feel better. i had one, an early 84ish one, and it was really, really, REALLY one of the most pos guitars i have ever owned or played. they looked great, sounded mediocre, and forget bending strings on the neck, the sawtooth fingerboard makes bending nearly impossible... which is why they were re-tooled for the tremolo (which is what bankrupted bond). so... feel better.... there' a billion teisco del rays out there that play better, and sound just as good. granted, they're not as cool looking, but... these are noisy, not very toneful, weigh about as much as two les pauls, and like i said, outside of chording aren't very useful for most modern (post 1950 to now) kinda playing. i DO hope ya get one to soothe the gas, and i hope ya get as much for it when it sickens you as i got for mine. ;)

    ReplyDelete

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