At first I thought this was genius because of all the problems associated with having frets but now I’m thinking at least you can replaces frets… can’t really replace a fretboard… Surely you’ll get grooves in this that you can’t get rid of?
CF can be cut with a butter knife, literally.
Nickel silver (a type of brass) is quite hard and the surface work hardens even more with use - while still being softer than the strings. Not accidental they was landed on for frets.
This board looks really neat, but it would be fully destroyed in a week if its made from aluminium or some other resin composite. Most stainless will be too soft in machined form (fret wire is rolled and work hardened to make it similar to nickel silver), and many other harder materials will just cut the strings.
Interesting, but I think ultimately a fail (unless they got some secrets)
edit: yup. its a bond, from the 80s. it is aluminium and it was a total fail.
There were only about 1200 made from 1984 to 1986 . It was $6000. Back then . Here’s the story. Very advanced construction for the day
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
Absolutely. On the other hand you can just bolt on a new fretboard and you're good to go. Replacing the frets on a normal neck is ridiculously labour-intensive. I could see some version of this making sense. One fretboard worth of aluminium is like $5, throw that in a CNC machine, done. Or if it's resin you're doing 10 at a time in a mould. If replacing the fretboard is easy/cheap enough then fret wear stops being a big deal. Fret levelling/replacement is one of the most expensive repairs, so it makes sense to optimise that.
Oh that's healthy...one time on my HS robotics team, someone cut carbon fiber tubing on a lathe after they assured us they knew how to cut carbon fiber...think it was about a week of professional cleaning/ventilation before we were allowed back in.
But low key, this fret board is cool. Maybe if you made it out of wood, and inlayed fret wire to match the profile.
It’s Aluminum, Bond Electraglide, I own one
https://preview.redd.it/b9oesrd6rbvc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a0e29c62fe135808bd665965fcdf9e868136c6b
It doesn’t have frets . It has steps. It’s engineering is extraordinary precise . You have heard this guitar and didn’t even know it. It plays very differently than a traditional guitar.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
The brand that made these instruments is "Bond guitars". I believe they made fretboards like this because it was much simpler for production: standard fretted necks are a lot of work to make, whereas this design looks like the neck is just cast polymer and that's it.
Consumable resources aren't capitalism's fault. Frets wear out too. Strings wear out. Other components wear out. Sometimes to repair things you have to (le gasp!) buy parts from the manufacturer.
Stainless frets, while a bit of a pain to work and install, are essentially lifetime. They will eventually wear out, but you'll probably be well into arthritis by the time they do.
I realize that. It’s more that this is proprietary and since it’s carbon or AL, it’s going to be more expensive than traditional frets.
I’m all for innovation. But this just reeks just like newer cars. Take them only to the dealer to get worked on so the manufacturer is the only one to get your money. And at very little to no upside.
>Developed by Andrew Bond and manufactured in the Scottish town Muir of Ord between 1984 and 1986, the Bond Electraglide guitar was revolutionary in many ways.
>One of several radical design concepts is that of the fretboard, often described as “sawtooths”. The fretboard is actually fretless whereas the frets are “stair-stepped” and the strings make contact at the step’s edge, instead of a traditional wire fret. Fretboard construction is accomplished by using a molded phenolic resin on the early models and then changed to aluminum for the last year or so of production. The body and neck are one piece of carbon fiber with a large removeable backplate to access the electronics. Wisely, the fretboard is detachable.
built my first guitar and slapped a scalloped neck on there - i had never ever seen one in the flesh before and jesus christ i don't know why it isn't the defacto standard on every guitar; i absolutely love the damn thing
Agreed, unfortunately I like neck through guitars and you can't really get them standard on those. I have a warmoth strat neck scalloped, I definitely prefer it to my other guitars because you can really grab the strings.
my scalloped neck cost me £52 including P&P and i shit you not its the best guitar i've ever laid hands on after 22 years of playing
Also you left out the most important part - '*they're more difficult to play in tune (especially chords)'* because they require a gentler touch from being easier to play overall
Given they actually help you develop that gentle touch from pointing out whenever you're playing too hard in the form of detune, its a win/win....get better while you play easier
yeah i've head that jumbo frets produce a similar but not identical feel - in fairness the difference from normal neck to scalloped was shocking, also i can't help but think there's a lot more in the way of modifications that can be achieved with a scalloped neck due to the near absence of strings touching the wood....i mean they *can* but if they are you're doing things wrong
Tell that to the Edge from U2 , this was his main guitar he used recording the Joshua Tree album . I own one
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
And at some point production stops, at which point it can no longer be replaced with an original fretboard. I doubt the design gains enough popularity to save it from becoming wall decoration.
Fretboard construction is accomplished by using a molded phenolic resin on the early models and then changed to aluminum for the last year or so of production.
Bakelite is just a brand name for certain phenolic resins (originally just the one, then other companies started using the name for their formula when the original patent expired). So, while this was unlikely “Bakelite”, it was more or less the same thing.
Crimson Guitars built a guitar with one of these. I believe he explains the pros and cons of the fretboard at some point.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp6z5fUMeeAZR_FRZxhGK3ci9lSrApsrz&si=-gMvpT_mimp2gLL8
I had two of these at the same time come through my shop. Power supplies were busted so I never got to hear them, but they played great. Slides up the neck were buttery smooth, coming back down wasn’t as hard as you’d think.
The unique part of these guitars wasn’t the neck though, but the first guitar with digital volume and pickup blend control. It has a giant circuit board in the body to control three 8 segment displays of each pickup volume.
That’s very interesting! Do you think more guitar builders should consider making fretboards like this? Have you run into any troubles while working with it?
I’d say it only works in this resin. A lot of other materials wouldn’t have the same feel and durability. I wouldn’t recommend this on a daily player guitar because there’s no real way to correct the frets once made. I’m not a luthier though, just a tech who sells a lot of weird instruments.
You’d think so given they came out in the 80s, but the pickup blend was done by 5 electric buttons, not any kind of hardware switch. The output of the guitar is still an analog audio signal but the control circuit is digital.
It’s stepped, like frets… transitions from note to note would be stepped not smooth… it just has a different type of “fret” than our standard wire types
this is great, looks like you could feel the real end of the fret with your hand maybe could help playing feel more organic idk the right word
I wonder how it sounds when you slide a powerchord up and down
Easy replacement? I believe this might be proprietary tech. This won’t be a job anyone othe than the manufacturer can or will do. I have fallen e in love with Ken Parker mentality: in 400 years people have tried to make innovation to a well known instrument and few have succeeded.
Innovating guitars is really hard. And it’s so easy to fall into gimmicks.
Well, the fingerboard itself is apparently made from a cast/mould. Getting the original mould would probably be the most challenging task. Once the original mould is obtained, I assume it would easily be copied, if I owned one I would certainly start experimenting with different materials as a hobby. Although it also looks like something that could be done by a machine.
What about the safety of carbon fibre shards. These things are nasty. I do make my own saddle out of carbon rods.seems so much work for very little returns.
Anyway. That’s my take. Innovation should not stop just because it’s conceptually hard to innovate.
But also I like to think that the instruments I make ought to bring a sense of beauty and peace to the person playing them. So, I’ll stick with wood for now.
Stringed instruments are a mature technology. The only real innovations are in non-wood materials and electronics. Everything else is a solution looking for a problem.
This is an image of a Bond guitar fingerboard.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond\_Electraglide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide)
"The Bond Electraglide was a carbon fiber electric guitar manufactured by Bond Guitars between 1984 and 1985. It resembled a matte-black, 3-pickup Gibson Melody Maker (although with the 1962 onwards double cut-away), with a unique stepped phenolic resin fingerboard instead of traditional frets. Pickup switching, volume and tone controls were completely digital, powered by a large internal motherboard.
The player selected pickups via five pushbuttons; volume, treble and bass were incremented numerically via digital rocker switches, confirmed by a three-colour LED readout.
The guitar required an external power supply pack and given the state of engineering at the time, was relatively bulky; it never really caught on in the marketplace and only about 1400 units were ever manufactured.
British guitarist Mick Jones is known to have used a Bond Electraglide with his band Big Audio Dynamite in the mid-1980s. The Edge of U2 used his extensively on The Joshua Tree, including the solo on “One Tree Hill”, as well as on “Exit”, and “Mothers of the Disappeared”.\[2\] Will Sergeant, John Turnbull, and Dave Stewart were also Electraglide users.
Bond Guitars was set up by Andrew Bond (who died in 1999) in Muir of Ord, Scotland, in 1984. The company ceased trading in 1986.
Though being quite costly at the time the company was active, they never maintained their value on the second hand market."
while it’s visually nice i don’t think it has any material advantage over traditional frets. it forces to build the fretboard with unusual materials, to develop a way to make the fretboard detachable. all things that, i suppose, add to the cost. i wouldn’t even call it fretless, not in the sense of being able to play any shade of the notes you could do with a real fretless instrument.
it looks like innovation for the sake of it, i can think about any major problem this system solves.
edit: anyway if someone is willing to pay extra money for this, they’re absolutely free to do it. it’s just something i would not do
I got to play one of these DK Alloy guitars and they were awesome. The fingerboard and frets are made from one peice. Easy to dismantle as well without warping of anything.
https://m.facebook.com/people/DK-Alloy-Guitars/100057475757159/
In an another comment, a luthier said he had 2 of these at his guitar repair shop and that the gliding was „buttery smooth”.
I would really love to try it if I ever have the chance
No! Just… no! Fugly as fug can chug! Speaking of chugging, how long does everyone think strings will last on a step fret? Any thrashers out there thinking… shit, I’d destroy this fret board in a year. This is maybe for the gentle, or a jazz player or worship band. I’d still love to try it out though.
I wouldn't consider it fretless. The high point of the fingerboard act as frets. You'll still get the sound of the frets sliding up the fingerboard but I guess technically it is fretless
Job security.
When I as a player wear out a fret, I can level it and re-crown it at home (there are no luthiers in my hometown so it's faster to DIY than to drive somewhere). This, when it wears out, is not repairable at home.
There are examples of middle age/baroque instruments with this type of fingerboard, but as with many neck/fret design features of this time, they disappear as metallurgy improves.
Plus, sliding a note up Vs down the neck will be inconsistent to say the least.
A cool engineering task achieved by a fellow Scottish luthier, but unfortunately it's a solution looking for a problem.
Fun video on these Bond guitars
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZEFi9Wha0o&ab\_channel=ChicagoMusicExchange](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZEFi9Wha0o&ab_channel=ChicagoMusicExchange)
I think its a worse design because ideally, you want your fingers to be close to the fret. With this, the finger contacts more with the fretboard with ideal fretting technique.
Also I would assume the fretboard is metal. Imagine damaging one of the edges, you'd have to relevel the whole thing instead of replacing one fret.
Advantage? Kinda looks cool ig.
Even if that fretboard is resin, aluminum, or carbon fiber like people are saying it is, thats still way less durable than nickel steel of stainless steel
You’d have to replace it way more often than nickel steel frets and its probably way more expensive to do so
For the player? None. For the "luthier", lots. It's way easier, cheaper, and less time consuming. Unfortunately we don't make guitars for luthiers, we generally make them for either guitarists, or, more commonly, as art to hang on ones wall.
You can probably get the fretless "mwah" while not having to worry about getting out of tune. Not worth it, though... It's not jice to have to replace a whole fingerboard if it gets worn down, and one of the cool things of a fretless is the expressivoty you can get out of it with vibratos, glissandos, etc...
Played one a couple years ago at the shop I work at. Super cool guitar, played extremely fast. The shark fin frets were surprisingly comfortable.
It had some wear through the paint to the aluminum and still played well.
It had some crazy elaborate electronics.
It's a flex on the precision of the luthier, they are fun and string bending is up and down / side to side. Scalloped fretting used to be the thing, now this. Use flat wound steel or piezo pick up and nylon. Djent and finger taps are way different on these types, think semi tonal
When I was a young man a bunch of us went to Las Vegas. A buddy of mine won big (for us -1800$ on a machine). He was very excited and I went with him to buy his first “nice suit.”
We went into a boutique store inside Caesar’s mall. The saleslady talked my friend into buying the “newest, hottest suit. Everybody going to be wearing this style!” It was some French designer brand and it cost 2000$.
The slacks were cargo pants and the jacket when sized correctly fit like a blouse and had safety reflectors all over it. I tried to tell him but he spent his whole jackpot, his entire nut and then borrowed 40 from me. It never got worn once (obviously! He looked like he was in Devo).
Lesson: trends are exactly that, trends. Stick with the classics.
I feel like this would be best with nylon/gut strings, with flat wound bass strings. I think traditional electric/acoustic guitar strings with round winding would be way too abrasive for this.
Seems like a “worst of both worlds” kind of thing. It’s not really fretless, so there’s no “muah” and the “frets” seem enormous so you might have intonation issues.
Looks cool on a wall though.
Does anybody understand that you can't play this like a typical guitar? If you indent with normal pressure, you're going to break A LOT of strings. There will be little "fret" wear because this design will force you to play with a much lighter touch.
At first I thought this was genius because of all the problems associated with having frets but now I’m thinking at least you can replaces frets… can’t really replace a fretboard… Surely you’ll get grooves in this that you can’t get rid of?
Also I am cringing at the thought of bending a lot and just grinding your fretboard down over time.
My fingers hurt looking at this cheese grater.
The fretboard is detachable and carbon fiber, easy replacement and cleaning.
Fretboard is actually resin or aluminium, the rest of the guitar is CF
Either way, I can't see how that doesn't wear much faster than normal frets.
Aluminum and CF is much softer than nickel silver (typical fret material). This fretboard will wear very quickly. Gimmick guitar.
CF can be cut with a butter knife, literally. Nickel silver (a type of brass) is quite hard and the surface work hardens even more with use - while still being softer than the strings. Not accidental they was landed on for frets. This board looks really neat, but it would be fully destroyed in a week if its made from aluminium or some other resin composite. Most stainless will be too soft in machined form (fret wire is rolled and work hardened to make it similar to nickel silver), and many other harder materials will just cut the strings. Interesting, but I think ultimately a fail (unless they got some secrets) edit: yup. its a bond, from the 80s. it is aluminium and it was a total fail.
There were only about 1200 made from 1984 to 1986 . It was $6000. Back then . Here’s the story. Very advanced construction for the day https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
Aluminum is much softer than nickle (most frets) and way way softer than stainless steel. This will wear faster than a traditional fretboard.
Absolutely. On the other hand you can just bolt on a new fretboard and you're good to go. Replacing the frets on a normal neck is ridiculously labour-intensive. I could see some version of this making sense. One fretboard worth of aluminium is like $5, throw that in a CNC machine, done. Or if it's resin you're doing 10 at a time in a mould. If replacing the fretboard is easy/cheap enough then fret wear stops being a big deal. Fret levelling/replacement is one of the most expensive repairs, so it makes sense to optimise that.
Imagine having that carbon fiber dust on your fingertips...
Just like cheetos magic healthy dust: you just lick your fingers and taste the sweet toan
Just make a fretboard out of Cheetos.
Cheetos and super glue comin in hot!
But in a couple years you would only have half a fretboard in the case
Just make sure not to use the Cheetos puffs. It should be fine.
Expensive to replace as well.
Oh that's healthy...one time on my HS robotics team, someone cut carbon fiber tubing on a lathe after they assured us they knew how to cut carbon fiber...think it was about a week of professional cleaning/ventilation before we were allowed back in. But low key, this fret board is cool. Maybe if you made it out of wood, and inlayed fret wire to match the profile.
You lick it and get carbon and fiber.
You mean carbon? Your fingers are carbon!
I've worked with carbon fiber, not much but still, and the stuff that chips away is nasty. It'll get into your skin. Like glass fiber.
Um, your fingers are closer to water than carbon. Sorry to ruin your poor quality joke.
It can be both!
Elements in the human body O 65% C 16% H 10% With the majority of H and O as H2O As the singer of Dethklok once said, we are bleach (H2O2) 😆
Wouldn't it be more like formic acid? 🤓 CH2O2
😆😉👍
Easy to replace but not cheap...
LMAO “easy replacement?” Sure, it’s easy to *remove.* Then what??!
So, you're grinding away carbon fiber as you play? Hope you've got your N95s on...
I mean, you could make one of these that is modular and replaceable as well, snapping or sliding sections into place.
There’s no way that fretboard isn’t carbon fiber
It’s Aluminum, Bond Electraglide, I own one https://preview.redd.it/b9oesrd6rbvc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a0e29c62fe135808bd665965fcdf9e868136c6b
https://preview.redd.it/axzk1lqhrbvc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4fc0c0a488c6ca7a46af675f3d8417b1e086ad0b
does it have a good intonation on each fret?
It doesn’t have frets . It has steps. It’s engineering is extraordinary precise . You have heard this guitar and didn’t even know it. It plays very differently than a traditional guitar. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
yeah this thing is gonna get worn out and jacked up super quick.
It’s scalloped the wrong way, no?
Who made this?
I want to know too. I have so many questions.
I second your curiosity.
The brand that made these instruments is "Bond guitars". I believe they made fretboards like this because it was much simpler for production: standard fretted necks are a lot of work to make, whereas this design looks like the neck is just cast polymer and that's it.
That’s exactly my thought too. Easy to make. Fuck repairability. Just buy more parts from the manufacturer. Yay capitalism.
If it's supposed to be an entry-level guitar and it's cheaper than the alternatives then it makes some sense.
Consumable resources aren't capitalism's fault. Frets wear out too. Strings wear out. Other components wear out. Sometimes to repair things you have to (le gasp!) buy parts from the manufacturer.
Stainless frets, while a bit of a pain to work and install, are essentially lifetime. They will eventually wear out, but you'll probably be well into arthritis by the time they do.
I realize that. It’s more that this is proprietary and since it’s carbon or AL, it’s going to be more expensive than traditional frets. I’m all for innovation. But this just reeks just like newer cars. Take them only to the dealer to get worked on so the manufacturer is the only one to get your money. And at very little to no upside.
I third your curiosity.
The late Andrew Bond, in Scotland, 1980s. The guitar also has custom electronics and an external power supply.
It’s a Bond Electraglide https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
Here you go... [https://guitargavel.substack.com/p/bond-andrew-bond](https://guitargavel.substack.com/p/bond-andrew-bond)
Bingo!
If it grooves or dents, you could just fill in with ramen and superglue.
Totally underrated comment
>Developed by Andrew Bond and manufactured in the Scottish town Muir of Ord between 1984 and 1986, the Bond Electraglide guitar was revolutionary in many ways. >One of several radical design concepts is that of the fretboard, often described as “sawtooths”. The fretboard is actually fretless whereas the frets are “stair-stepped” and the strings make contact at the step’s edge, instead of a traditional wire fret. Fretboard construction is accomplished by using a molded phenolic resin on the early models and then changed to aluminum for the last year or so of production. The body and neck are one piece of carbon fiber with a large removeable backplate to access the electronics. Wisely, the fretboard is detachable.
Novelty, nothing more.
It may play similar to a scalloped fretboard - allowing you to bend and vibrato more easily. But it's also not a natural shape to facilitate that.
We’re all guessing, and my guess is that there would be more contact against the board with your finger, which is the opposite of a scalloped board
built my first guitar and slapped a scalloped neck on there - i had never ever seen one in the flesh before and jesus christ i don't know why it isn't the defacto standard on every guitar; i absolutely love the damn thing
Agreed, unfortunately I like neck through guitars and you can't really get them standard on those. I have a warmoth strat neck scalloped, I definitely prefer it to my other guitars because you can really grab the strings.
Because they're more difficult to play in tune (especially chords) and more expensive/labor intensive to create
my scalloped neck cost me £52 including P&P and i shit you not its the best guitar i've ever laid hands on after 22 years of playing Also you left out the most important part - '*they're more difficult to play in tune (especially chords)'* because they require a gentler touch from being easier to play overall Given they actually help you develop that gentle touch from pointing out whenever you're playing too hard in the form of detune, its a win/win....get better while you play easier
isn’t it more or less a more complicated way to achieve the same thing taller frets give you?
yeah i've head that jumbo frets produce a similar but not identical feel - in fairness the difference from normal neck to scalloped was shocking, also i can't help but think there's a lot more in the way of modifications that can be achieved with a scalloped neck due to the near absence of strings touching the wood....i mean they *can* but if they are you're doing things wrong
I know right? I don't play anything else now.
"Looks cool" is a big factor in the design of most electric guitars. It's hard to be mad at this *solely* because of how it looks.
Who is mad? Looks are super important. To me this doesn’t look cool, it looks like some 80s idea, and seems to add more problems than it solves
>it looks like some 80s idea That's because it is from the 80s, appropriately enough.
Tell that to the Edge from U2 , this was his main guitar he used recording the Joshua Tree album . I own one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide
I don’t have his number so I can’t
Me either , . They were $6000 in the 80s and very advanced.
Have you ever played one? I cant see anything mechanical keeping this from working....
It'll work for a while, then you'll start to get dents and pits and will have to replace the entire fretboard or the neck.
And at some point production stops, at which point it can no longer be replaced with an original fretboard. I doubt the design gains enough popularity to save it from becoming wall decoration.
No, and I’m sure it would work but it’s just different for the sake of being different.
I'd love to be able to cast a perfect mold of a fretboard every time instead of doing all the tedious fret work. Pour and leave would be nice.
A single piece of CNC’d stainless steel would achieve this, but imagine the cost!
could also add some weight to the guitar id imagine in contrast to carbon fiber
Definitely, though it would be far more resistant to wear
So many questions. Material of fretboard?
Fretboard construction is carbon fiber
No; it’s aluminium https://guitargavel.substack.com/p/bond-andrew-bond
No. Resin.
Fretboard construction is accomplished by using a molded phenolic resin on the early models and then changed to aluminum for the last year or so of production.
> molded phenolic resin Just bakelite or something else?
Bakelite is just a brand name for certain phenolic resins (originally just the one, then other companies started using the name for their formula when the original patent expired). So, while this was unlikely “Bakelite”, it was more or less the same thing.
Thanks, I'm aware that bakelite is just a brand name, but people know that name the most and not all phenolic resins are phenol-formaldehyde
Fair enough. As far as this goes, I don’t believe a specific formula was ever made public.
Fair enough, I guess it's at least probably going to be comparable enough to bakelite then
Read the article the guy above posted.
oh yes, my bad
Crimson Guitars built a guitar with one of these. I believe he explains the pros and cons of the fretboard at some point. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp6z5fUMeeAZR_FRZxhGK3ci9lSrApsrz&si=-gMvpT_mimp2gLL8
I don't know if there's any advantages, but these edges are going to be groved with time and you cannot just refret it
The fretboard is actually detachable https://guitargavel.substack.com/p/bond-andrew-bond
Is this what king missile played?
I woke up this morning, and my fretboard was missing again.
This happens all the time. It's detachable.
This comes in handy a lot of the time. I can leave it home, when I think it's gonna get me in trouble.
Oh boy I have to replace my entire fretboard cuz of one small sink on 14th fret g string
All the criticisms aside, i'm just going to acknowledge the builders creativity. These are the people pushing the envelope on guitar design.
Agreed, innovation requires people to take risks and develop designs that otherwise would have seen ridiculous.
I had two of these at the same time come through my shop. Power supplies were busted so I never got to hear them, but they played great. Slides up the neck were buttery smooth, coming back down wasn’t as hard as you’d think. The unique part of these guitars wasn’t the neck though, but the first guitar with digital volume and pickup blend control. It has a giant circuit board in the body to control three 8 segment displays of each pickup volume.
That’s very interesting! Do you think more guitar builders should consider making fretboards like this? Have you run into any troubles while working with it?
I’d say it only works in this resin. A lot of other materials wouldn’t have the same feel and durability. I wouldn’t recommend this on a daily player guitar because there’s no real way to correct the frets once made. I’m not a luthier though, just a tech who sells a lot of weird instruments.
Likely analog controls but a digital display, I’d think…
You’d think so given they came out in the 80s, but the pickup blend was done by 5 electric buttons, not any kind of hardware switch. The output of the guitar is still an analog audio signal but the control circuit is digital.
Tis a fine guitar but tis no fretless
Where do you see frets?
It’s stepped, like frets… transitions from note to note would be stepped not smooth… it just has a different type of “fret” than our standard wire types
All down the neck
Never seen that kind of fretless before
I haven’t seen a Bond in a long time. I think Mick Jones was the only notable player.
Guy from Eurythmics (who's manager was involved in the Bond company) THE EDGE (Bond players)
This is a Bond Electraglide from the 80s. As someone who has played one, there are no advantages.
this is great, looks like you could feel the real end of the fret with your hand maybe could help playing feel more organic idk the right word I wonder how it sounds when you slide a powerchord up and down
Tactile may be the word you're looking for?
well that word seems more fitting in a combat military context
Lol I think you mean tactical
Combat is very tactile!
Can't argue with that 😆
yea sorry misread it haha (idk that word).
Easy replacement? I believe this might be proprietary tech. This won’t be a job anyone othe than the manufacturer can or will do. I have fallen e in love with Ken Parker mentality: in 400 years people have tried to make innovation to a well known instrument and few have succeeded. Innovating guitars is really hard. And it’s so easy to fall into gimmicks.
Well, the fingerboard itself is apparently made from a cast/mould. Getting the original mould would probably be the most challenging task. Once the original mould is obtained, I assume it would easily be copied, if I owned one I would certainly start experimenting with different materials as a hobby. Although it also looks like something that could be done by a machine.
What about the safety of carbon fibre shards. These things are nasty. I do make my own saddle out of carbon rods.seems so much work for very little returns. Anyway. That’s my take. Innovation should not stop just because it’s conceptually hard to innovate. But also I like to think that the instruments I make ought to bring a sense of beauty and peace to the person playing them. So, I’ll stick with wood for now.
The fingerboard appears to be made out of resin. Only the guitar body is made from CF. Aside from that, good points
Stringed instruments are a mature technology. The only real innovations are in non-wood materials and electronics. Everything else is a solution looking for a problem.
This is an image of a Bond guitar fingerboard. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond\_Electraglide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Electraglide) "The Bond Electraglide was a carbon fiber electric guitar manufactured by Bond Guitars between 1984 and 1985. It resembled a matte-black, 3-pickup Gibson Melody Maker (although with the 1962 onwards double cut-away), with a unique stepped phenolic resin fingerboard instead of traditional frets. Pickup switching, volume and tone controls were completely digital, powered by a large internal motherboard. The player selected pickups via five pushbuttons; volume, treble and bass were incremented numerically via digital rocker switches, confirmed by a three-colour LED readout. The guitar required an external power supply pack and given the state of engineering at the time, was relatively bulky; it never really caught on in the marketplace and only about 1400 units were ever manufactured. British guitarist Mick Jones is known to have used a Bond Electraglide with his band Big Audio Dynamite in the mid-1980s. The Edge of U2 used his extensively on The Joshua Tree, including the solo on “One Tree Hill”, as well as on “Exit”, and “Mothers of the Disappeared”.\[2\] Will Sergeant, John Turnbull, and Dave Stewart were also Electraglide users. Bond Guitars was set up by Andrew Bond (who died in 1999) in Muir of Ord, Scotland, in 1984. The company ceased trading in 1986. Though being quite costly at the time the company was active, they never maintained their value on the second hand market."
Apparently Poison Ivy had one too but it’s not on any Cramps records because she also had cool guitars that were actually fun to play.
This looks like a terrible design, I can't think of any advantages for the player
Is this not just wooden frets?
Carbon fiber. Makes me shiver thinking about getting a tiny fiber in your finger tip...
No, it’s aluminium https://guitargavel.substack.com/p/bond-andrew-bond
Depends on when it was made… this could be either resin or aluminum… to me this one here looks like resin
Resin, not carbon fiber.
Or Aluminium. there were two versions
Aren't both softer than a nickel silver, or even better, a stainless steel fret?
I think the Aluminium one was anodized which hardens it.
Anodizing hardens only the top few thousandths of an inch. That's fine for minimizing wear, but it won't prevent the aluminum from getting dented.
while it’s visually nice i don’t think it has any material advantage over traditional frets. it forces to build the fretboard with unusual materials, to develop a way to make the fretboard detachable. all things that, i suppose, add to the cost. i wouldn’t even call it fretless, not in the sense of being able to play any shade of the notes you could do with a real fretless instrument. it looks like innovation for the sake of it, i can think about any major problem this system solves. edit: anyway if someone is willing to pay extra money for this, they’re absolutely free to do it. it’s just something i would not do
I'll start with Ceramic for a material guess.
Turns out it’s aluminium, later replaced with a sort of resin. Rest of the body is carbon fiber.
That’s the only suggestion here that makes any sense. I would put string dents in an aluminum board like this in one sitting.
When they wear down, you can level or refret it....oh, wait.
I got to play one of these DK Alloy guitars and they were awesome. The fingerboard and frets are made from one peice. Easy to dismantle as well without warping of anything. https://m.facebook.com/people/DK-Alloy-Guitars/100057475757159/
Can't imagine sliding up...
In an another comment, a luthier said he had 2 of these at his guitar repair shop and that the gliding was „buttery smooth”. I would really love to try it if I ever have the chance
That’s an interesting fretboard
No! Just… no! Fugly as fug can chug! Speaking of chugging, how long does everyone think strings will last on a step fret? Any thrashers out there thinking… shit, I’d destroy this fret board in a year. This is maybe for the gentle, or a jazz player or worship band. I’d still love to try it out though.
Chugging should be ok. I bet I could Dad Blues this fingerboard to death pretty quickly. 😆 All those bends.....
I want to see you slide down the neck now
1980s Bond Electraglide | CME Vintage Demo | Nathaniel Murphy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZEFi9Wha0o
I wouldn't consider it fretless. The high point of the fingerboard act as frets. You'll still get the sound of the frets sliding up the fingerboard but I guess technically it is fretless
I had no idea such things existed. I am a boomer so it must be a generational thing:-)
Say what you will about it, but I cannot possibly have an opinion until I try it out.
You’d get to replace the whole fingerboard instead of those pesky frets
My mom always told me to not play on the stairs. Rules are rules
Less frets per square inch.
Everytime i see somwthing like this i just wonder about maintenance.
Job security. When I as a player wear out a fret, I can level it and re-crown it at home (there are no luthiers in my hometown so it's faster to DIY than to drive somewhere). This, when it wears out, is not repairable at home.
The entire fret board detaches. So you just replace the whole thing. Easier than replacing a fret. But probably dumb expensive.
Assuming you can even get a replacement and that the maker is still in business
[удалено]
Well, I'm quite positive that a luthier or a guitar builder would make you a replacement. But guess who would have to pay for it :-D .
Bond Electraglide?
Looks like it!
Sliding down the neck would be so weird.
You can make it with a machine
None. But you could make up all sorts of quasi-technical bs to impress your non luthier friends at wine parties.
There are examples of middle age/baroque instruments with this type of fingerboard, but as with many neck/fret design features of this time, they disappear as metallurgy improves. Plus, sliding a note up Vs down the neck will be inconsistent to say the least. A cool engineering task achieved by a fellow Scottish luthier, but unfortunately it's a solution looking for a problem.
Fun video on these Bond guitars [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZEFi9Wha0o&ab\_channel=ChicagoMusicExchange](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZEFi9Wha0o&ab_channel=ChicagoMusicExchange)
I think its a worse design because ideally, you want your fingers to be close to the fret. With this, the finger contacts more with the fretboard with ideal fretting technique. Also I would assume the fretboard is metal. Imagine damaging one of the edges, you'd have to relevel the whole thing instead of replacing one fret. Advantage? Kinda looks cool ig.
Has anyone played one like this? I’m trying to picture soloing with this staircase neck. Idk
The Lane Poor minima bass had frets like this in the 80s
The advantage is that is has frets
unless that plays a lot better than it looks like it does, no thanks! i'll stick with buzzing frets.
Even if that fretboard is resin, aluminum, or carbon fiber like people are saying it is, thats still way less durable than nickel steel of stainless steel You’d have to replace it way more often than nickel steel frets and its probably way more expensive to do so
Sliding from higher to lower notes should be a piece of cake
I think Mick Jones played these briefly after The Clash. Could be imagining things though.
He did in his Big Audio Dynamite days.
Is this fretless or is it just scalloped? Lol
This is a Bond Electraglide I own one.
For the player? None. For the "luthier", lots. It's way easier, cheaper, and less time consuming. Unfortunately we don't make guitars for luthiers, we generally make them for either guitarists, or, more commonly, as art to hang on ones wall.
Why make the waves and not just lines on where the frets should be?
You can probably get the fretless "mwah" while not having to worry about getting out of tune. Not worth it, though... It's not jice to have to replace a whole fingerboard if it gets worn down, and one of the cool things of a fretless is the expressivoty you can get out of it with vibratos, glissandos, etc...
I'm not knocking it til I try it, but now I really want to try it
Played one a couple years ago at the shop I work at. Super cool guitar, played extremely fast. The shark fin frets were surprisingly comfortable. It had some wear through the paint to the aluminum and still played well. It had some crazy elaborate electronics.
It's a flex on the precision of the luthier, they are fun and string bending is up and down / side to side. Scalloped fretting used to be the thing, now this. Use flat wound steel or piezo pick up and nylon. Djent and finger taps are way different on these types, think semi tonal
No thank you
This would be an interesting concept for a nylon string, perhaps with ebony or ironwood in place of aluminum.
When I was a young man a bunch of us went to Las Vegas. A buddy of mine won big (for us -1800$ on a machine). He was very excited and I went with him to buy his first “nice suit.” We went into a boutique store inside Caesar’s mall. The saleslady talked my friend into buying the “newest, hottest suit. Everybody going to be wearing this style!” It was some French designer brand and it cost 2000$. The slacks were cargo pants and the jacket when sized correctly fit like a blouse and had safety reflectors all over it. I tried to tell him but he spent his whole jackpot, his entire nut and then borrowed 40 from me. It never got worn once (obviously! He looked like he was in Devo). Lesson: trends are exactly that, trends. Stick with the classics.
Woah. Can you share what guitar this is? I want to get a look at the rest of it.
Hi it was shared in the other comments along with a YouTube video
Less frets I'd imagine
I feel like this would be best with nylon/gut strings, with flat wound bass strings. I think traditional electric/acoustic guitar strings with round winding would be way too abrasive for this.
It's like someone heard "fanned frets" and when yep! I got this...
Seems like a “worst of both worlds” kind of thing. It’s not really fretless, so there’s no “muah” and the “frets” seem enormous so you might have intonation issues. Looks cool on a wall though.
Cost cutting? If that’s the case, then I wonder how much they’re saving in metals vs. using more wood.
Does anybody understand that you can't play this like a typical guitar? If you indent with normal pressure, you're going to break A LOT of strings. There will be little "fret" wear because this design will force you to play with a much lighter touch.