Big Audio Dynamite Custom Sg

[Neohet]

Back in the 80's I was into a band called 'Big Audio Dynamite'. Probably their most well known hit being 'E=MC squared'. Anyone remember them?

Anyway, the lead singer/Guitarist (Mick Jones Formerly of 'Clash') used to have an SG type guitar.

A picture from their '86 Brixton gig shows him with this guitar:

Mick Jones at Brixton

Now the thing is, on the cover of their '86 album 'No. 10 Upping Street', He's shown holding what seems to be the same guitar, only now it has what looks like a numeric keypad fitted behind the bridge :

No. 10 Upping Street Cover

You can't see it very clearly on this web image but I have the LP on vynyl and It definatly looks like a keypad.

Anybody seen one of these on a guitar or built one into a custom project?, anyone know or have any ideas what it's for?

Regards,

Matt.

[Mr Alex]

Homework on the fly?

Quantum computing?

[ZoSo_Spencer]

dont think it was this but maybe its something similar

i want one

[loudandproud]

cool concept. tunes on the fly

[verhoevenc]

That's a guitar by a guy named "Bond". The model I don't even think had a name. It was just called the Bond guitar. And as for the keypad... I dunno, but that thing on the upper part of the body, when looking down in an alpha-numeric display that displays I THINK, depending on what you klast pressed, the pickup combination, or volume, or tone value.

Coo guitar... didn't do well though, went out of production VERY fast.

Chris

[Neohet]

Thanks for that Chris.

I Googled 'Bond Guitar' and found out it's actualy called a 'Bond Electraglide'.

I found one for sale over here for £3500 ($6000 US) :

Bond Electraglide

Then found that one was recently sold on e-Bay for just £486 ($832 US) Lucky B*****D

For anybody else that's interested, here's aparantly what the user manual says:

The truly innovative features include:

Stepped "sculpted" fingerboard (instead of metal frets) for a superfast ultra low action and a genuinely unique playing experience.

Black carbon fibre (graphite) "all in one" construction for fantastic tuning stability - unlike wood the material is unaffected by normal temperature or humidity changes.

Active electronic controls all monitored by a fabulous colour-coded "Traffic Light" L.E.D readout.

3 single coil pick-ups that can be utilised individually, or in any combination both in or out of phase.

"The electronic circuitry allows the player to choose any combination of pickup selection, phasing and tone. The tonal and dynamic range of the ELECTRAGLIDE is greater than the traditional guitar and the player can easily and accurately recreate any particular tonal effect by noting the pickup setting and the digital read-out display.

You can select any pickup by lightly pressing the appropriate switch. The read-out screen will show whether the pickup is ON or OFF. If you use two or three pickups you can create a wide range of tonal effects by pressing one or both of the phase controls. There is no phase switch for the middle pickup because all combinations of pickup phasing can be chosen with the two switches.

The three rocker switches which control the volume treble and bass responses of the pickups each have a coloured LED below them. Red for volume, YELLOW for treble and GREEN for bass. These switches can be set from zero to nine and the read-out screen will show the setting for each control in its appropriate colour. For instance, if the volume is set to seven the number 7 will appear in red on the screen. The treble and bass controls each have a range of +/- 10dB’s in 2dB steps with the middle of their range at setting four."

Still don't know if the numeric keypad was a mod that Mick Jones had fitted or what it was for, maybe it was so he could phone a technician if it all went wrong

Thanks for the replies,

Matt.

[verhoevenc]

On eBay Now

Ok, so yeah, it's in the US... but it's still only a buy it now of $925. HOWEVER, I'm guessing you're not in the US from all the pound signs... AND this guy only ships to the USA. But hey, if you REALLY wanna get it, I'll help you out, cause I'm kinda interested to play this bad boy. So if you need somewhere to send it in the US and for someone to then forward it on to you in the UK, you can use me. If you want, we can exchange addresses, and figure out some way of ensuring mutual safety in this, etc.

PM me if you want the help.

Chris

[Neohet]

Thanks for the offer Chris. Yeh, you're right, I am in the UK , unfortunatly I can't afford that much at the moment even though it sounds like a bargain for such an awsome guitar.

Also, as the guy says in the description "hard to find these guitars that work" I'd be a bit aprehensive about spending so much.

That was my first thought when I read the blurb from the user's manual (alot to go wrong).

I trained as an electronics service engineer about 15 years ago and I'm considering building some electronics, like onboad effects etc. into my next project, that's why I was intersted if anybody new anything about this guitar.

I love the look of the Bond, think I might build something similar but with less complicated electronics

Keep you posted if I do.

Thank again for the help.

Regards,

Matt.