The famous Höfner bass guitar is in your hands Paul McCartney in 1961. The then-beginning musician bought it for £30 (in today's money it's about £800). He used it throughout his career with The Beatles, and after the sessions for the band's last album, “Let It Be”, the bass was stolen. It was around 1972.
For over 52 years, no one knew what was happening to the missing and extremely important instrument for the musician. Therefore, in 2023, the Lost Bass Project was created to find the Höfner 500/1 or find out what happened to it. In February, an entry appeared online by a student who admitted that he had inherited the guitar and had already handed it over to the former Beatle.
“To my friends and family, I inherited this item that was returned to Paul McCartney. Please share this news,” he wrote Ruaidhri Guest on the website
In an interview with a tabloid, the man's mother mentioned how the instrument came to be in their house. “My husband inherited it after the death of another family member and had it for years. (…) He had no idea where it came from. He was a keen musician and played all the guitars in the house, including Paul's bass. We both loved music and still I go to concerts every weekend,” she said CathyGuest.
Then the woman also revealed that when she decided to send the guitar back to McCartney, she put a letter inside in which she informed about her difficult life situation – she is a single mother who takes care of two school-age children. She hoped that by being honest and giving back the found guitar, worth approximately 10 million pounds, the musician would look at it favorably.
Now we read in the newspaper that after confirming the authenticity of the instrument, the legendary member of The Beatles decided to pay the Guest family “five-digit amount” of the finder. The exact amount was not disclosed, but the range is quite large (from PLN 10,000 to PLN 99,000). The journal suggests that this is quite a modest reward for such a rare and valuable item.
This unusual-looking instrument has become an inseparable element of Paul McCartney's image. As a left-handed musician, McCartney initially fell in love with its symmetrical shape. Recently, an action to find the instrument was initiated thanks to the cooperation of the director of the Höfner company, Nick Wass and the musician himself.
“I had worked closely with Paul McCartney's band over the years, and when Paul and I met, we were talking about his first Höfner bass and where it might be today. Paul said to me, 'Hey, if you work at Höfner, could you help find my bass?' And that's what started this great hunt,” he said in an interview.
It so happens that the manufacturer could not refuse this offer. After all, McCartney unwittingly became the instrument's greatest ambassador and is why Höfner bass guitars are still so popular. During his career, the musician already had four guitars of this brand, and he still plays one of them.
Nick Wass admits that the instrument is actually priceless today, equating its value to “works by Van Gogh or Picasso” than to the instrument itself. “This is the bass Paul played in Hamburg, at the Cavern Club and at Abbey Road,” he notes.
For years, it was rumored that the guitar had been stolen from a closet at EMI's London studios or had gone missing in the basement of the band's Savile Row offices. She was last seen in reality a few years before her official disappearance, i.e. on January 30, 1969, during the legendary rooftop concert.