The rare guitar that starred on U2's defining album

U2 released their 16th studio album this week, titled Carnaval de Luz, but long-term fans will know it was their fifth album that cemented their iconic status as one of the world's biggest rock bands.

Released in 1987, The Joshua Tree became the Irish band's best-selling album, with more than 25 million copies sold around the world, and a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1988.

It was on that record that lead guitarist the Edge played a rare and unique version of the instrument that was designed and made in Poole, Dorset.

"My father invented one of the most revolutionary electric guitars of all time in the very late 70s," said Ashley Bond of his dad's Bond Electraglide.

Andrew Bond was "into woodwork and carpentry" and began carrying out repairs on people's guitars locally, said his son.

"Then it got busy, so he got a workshop in Hamworthy and, from there, he started messing around building guitars," Ashley explained.

There were two notable things that were different about the Electraglide.

It was made of a single piece of carbon fibre and it did not have traditional frets, the neck had a sawtooth design that removed the need for them.

Ben Crowe, a guitar maker from Crimson Guitars near Dorchester, said those innovations probably came from Andrew's experience in his repair shop.

"I can see his thinking," said Ben. "He was doing fretwork over and over and over again.

"He was working with guitar necks that were made out of wood and, in that era, the wood that they were using was not good enough, so the wood moved as you went in and out of sweaty, smoke-filled bars.

"Andrew knew about carbon fibre, knew it was stable and said, 'let's make it out of carbon fibre and let's get rid of the frets'. That's fantastic."

Opinions on how the Electraglide actually performed were mixed.

The Edge told Guitar World magazine he could not get it to do anything for him until he stopped playing it properly and "really sort of abused it".

Around 1,400 were made and Andrew got them into the hands of the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, Mick Jones from the Clash and Will Sergeant from Echo & the Bunnymen.

A pre-production prototype owned by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour sold at auction for about £40,000 in 2019.

Ben said he finally bought one himself about 10 years ago.

He said: "I'd wanted one from the very first time I saw it in a magazine or a book in the early 2000s when I started designing guitars.

"It was mind-blowing, I was like a kid in a candy store. Taking into account the limitations of the technology at the time, there's nothing that I'd change about the guitar, I absolutely love it."

Earlier this year, Bond Guitars showed their first new guitar in more than 40 years.

Ashley, who is based in Bournemouth and has taken on the company name, said he owes it to his late father to continue his legacy.

"Whatever dad did was never conventional," he said.

"We've built the first prototype out of wood but we do have a guitar, which will come much later, called a Halo, where we will go back to full carbon fibre.

"I'm a mortgage underwriter by day, which is very different from building guitars, but I've always felt there was an unfinished story, something I've got to finish."

U2 are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, marking five decades since they formed in Dublin in 1976.

The band recorded an exclusive concert earlier this month at the Tate Modern in London for BBC Music.

U2: Live on the BBC at Tate Modern airs on BBC Two and iPlayer on 28 November at 21:50 GMT, as part of a dedicated U2 night on the channel.

A special broadcast will air on 30 November, from 19:00 to 21:00 on Jo Whiley's Radio 2 show and BBC Sounds, featuring the concert audio and a new band interview.

The programmes will also be available on iPlayer and BBC Sounds after the broadcast.