2023-09-05 11:15:00
“Höfner H500/1 Violin” Beatles Bass: Worldwide search for Paul McCartney’s lost instrument
Ex-Beatles member Paul McCartney prefers to play the bass of a German instrument manufacturer
© Debby Wong / Shutterstock
Since 1969, Paul McCartney’s legendary bass from the early days of the Beatles has disappeared. Now the instrument is being sought worldwide.
For them it’s the “biggest mystery of rock’n’roll” – and they’re determined to solve it: half a century after their disappearance, three Beatles fans have started a worldwide search for a legendary bass guitar by Paul McCartney.
McCartney had bought the instrument, a “Höfner H500/1 Violin Bass”, in 1961 for just 30 British pounds (approx. “She Loves You” and “Twist and Shout”. With the bass from the German manufacturer, he also performed in the band’s early years at the legendary Top Ten Club in Hamburg and at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
Paul McCartney: Bass guitar suspected of being stolen
The search for McCartney’s presumably stolen instrument has now started for the manufacturer Höfner, the company’s former marketing manager and guitar developer. Nick Wass wants to track down the “most important bass in history” with the “Lost Bass Project”.
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The campaign has shared photographs and the known history of the instrument from purchase to disappearance on its official website and is asking for information. The bass was last seen in January 1969 when The Beatles recorded “Get Back” and “Let It Be” in London. “Although nobody really knows what happened to the bass, it was most likely stolen. It remains a mystery to this day,” revealed expert Wass, who also wrote the book “The Complete Violin Bass Story” about the missing instrument, to the British “Guardians”.
His fellow detective Scott Jones pointed out that it was McCartney’s first guitar: The journalist, whose colleague and wife Naomi is also involved in the search campaign, said that its new owner may not know anything about the instrument’s origin.
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Paul McCartney himself has described in the past how he fell in love with the “Höfner H500/1 Violin Bass”: “Because I was left-handed, it looked less silly to me because it was symmetrical,” revealed the ex-Beatle.
John Lennon’s guitar resurfaced after more than 50 years
If the Höfner bass is actually found, a lot of money could in all probability be made with the instrument. The guitar on which John Lennon (1940-1980) wrote “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was sold at auction in 2014 for the incredible sum of 2.4 million US dollars (approx. 2.2 million euros). The instrument had previously disappeared for 51 years.
They have received hundreds of emails since the search campaign began on Saturday, Scott Jones said. Two indications are quite promising.
Sources: Projekt “The lost bass”, “Guardian”AFP, SpotOn
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