Bond Electraglide Power Supply

[jward189]

Dear All,

 

The Holy Grail of guitars for me has been the Bond Electraglide (Mick Jones) and I was fortunate enough to recently get the winning bid for one on ebay. I did buy the guitar knowing the external power supply wasn't working. We have a really good tech here in the Chicago suburbs.

 

Does anyone know anything about that power supply? Schematics? Has any had success building a replacement or repairing the original?

 

Thanks!

 

Jeff

[JFrahm]

It's only been a little over 10 years since you asked, but yes I just puzzled out the schematic for the Bond power supply and built a very easy, inexpensive replacement unit. I'd been busy with other projects and with updates to my MySpace page. Sorry!

 

My Bond power supply is old and noisy and I feel it's better put away safe for originality and another power supply used in the meantime.

 

Anyway I can draw a schematic later but here is a general description:

The Bond power supply that came with my guitar has an output voltage is 15.8v no load, 13.6v with the guitar plugged in.

The guitar draws a modest 130ma.

 

I based my power supply on the MT3608 2A adjustable Boost Converter, less than $1 USD from China (takes about 3 weeks to get). You can get them in the USA for a couple bucks each if you are in a hurry. These can be bought with a micro USB input and that's what I bought, twice, but they kept sending them with no micro USB so I gave up and cut the USB cable off an old mouse and soldered the red and black wires to the converter (leaving the USB "A" connector on the other end, not the mouse. I threw the mouse away). These input 2v-28v and output 5v-28v and you can draw 2A off one, or so they say. We are at 0.13A so no worries.

 

My idea was to use one of the many USB power supplies I have laying around the house to power the Bond via the boost converter, and I could also use a lithium USB power bank if I wanted or if for some reason there was electrical noise. I could also set the voltage exactly.

 

This actually works perfectly and maybe the ferrite on the mouse cord I used also helped with any hum or noise. It's very quiet!

 

With the mouse cable plugged into some old Motorola USB phone charger I set the output of the boost controller to 13v, I thought maybe 12v was appropriate for the guitar circuitry but maybe there is some drop in the guitar itself. 13V is working OK but you can use 13.6v if you want to match what my original power supply puts out.

 

+13v output from the converter goes to the tip connector on a switchcraft stereo 1/4" jack AKA TRS jack. This was the most expensive component on the kit at perhaps $4. Ground from the MT3608 output goes to the sleeve of the jack, the typical ground.

 

Now for the sound: output from the Bond guitar comes via the "Ring" connector on the stereo 1/4" jack, this is the middle one. Looking at a stereo 1/4" cable from the sorta-pointy end it's Tip, then Ring, then Sleeve(ground). And in this circuit it's Tip-Power, Ring-sound, Sleeve-ground.

 

The sound output does not go directly to the output jack, but rather via a voltage divider, a very simple one consisting of a 47K ohm resistor and a 10K ohm resistor. Replicating the the original power supply circuit I wired the 10K resistor from Ring to Ground, and then wired the 47K ohm from Ring over to the Tip of the output jack. That's the audio output connection. Then you just wire the grounds together on both the stereo and mono jacks, as you would expect. It's very simple and there are maybe 10 solder joints and 6 components total.

 

Cost is way under $10:

$free old mouse cable or random USB cable, maybe you can get the converter with the jack on it also.

$0.55 MT3608 boost converter, China

$2.00 project box, China (I will use it for the 2nd built, the 1st one is in a cardboard box)

$4.00 Switchcraft, USA

$1.00 or less 1/4" mono jack, China

$1.00 (or less) 10K and 47K resistors, China

 

I plan to add an LED power indicator to the circuit and maybe reorder different resistors, I ordered metal film but got carbon composite for one value, plus I think I want to up the wattage from 1/4 watt to 1/2 just to make the circuit more rugged and maybe better match the wire gauges elsewhere. I can afford another buck.

 

Circuit diagram to follow,

-Joel.

 

 

 

 

[jward189]

Joel,

 

Wow! Getting a response after all this time is like finding a message in the bottle at the beach. Regardless, I'm grateful you took the time to reply with some very interesting information.

 

What I ended up doing is buying a second Bond Electraglide with a working power supply. With that in hand, the tech at Cremer Guitarworks in North Aurora, Illinois, was able to build me a kick-ass indestructible replacement for the non-working one.

 

Now I just need to get back to playing!

 

Jeff

[Busk]

How about some photos of another guitar that everyone has forgotten about?

[JFrahm]

There are some great pics on the Bond FB page maintained by a relative of Andrew Bond:

https://www.facebook.com/bondelectraglide/

 

-Joel.

[JFrahm]

Power supply diagram. I used an MT3608 2A adjustable Boost Converter to provide the voltage. The Boost Converter is powered by an old mouse cable with the mouse cut off, then plugged into a cell phone charger or USB power bank. My Bond drew only 130ma so any USB supply should work. I understand the new commercial power supplies run at 18V but mine works fine at 13V, let me know if I should turn it up for some reason. The converter is adjustable so set it where you like.