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Paul McCartney in 1969 with the long-lost Höfner bass
Photo: Apple Films / Höfner GmbH / picture alliance
Happy end to a long search: Paul McCartney has the bass guitar back that he bought from a Hamburg music store in 1961. The former Beatles star confirmed this on his website. Fans and an employee of the manufacturer Höfner helped find the instrument, which had been missing for decades.
They had set up a website called “The Lost Bass Project” and were seeking publicity for the search. On Thursday, the hobby detectives were able to report that the bass had been returned to McCartney - even in the original case. The guitar has slight damage, but it can be repaired. The instrument can then be played again. Two investigative journalists from England were supported in the search by Nick Wass, a long-time employee of the Höfner company.
The left-handed Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass, which Paul McCartney bought for 287 German marks, was his most-played instrument in the early days of the Beatles, at his first concerts in Hamburg, at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and at Abbey Road Studios . As the “Lost Bass Project” has now reconstructed, the bass guitar was stolen from a van in the London district of Notting Hill on October 10, 1972.
The thief then sold the instrument to a pub owner in the area. The bass detectives explored the way forward and published a report on the status of their search in the British “Telegraph” in September 2023. The resulting public interest in McCartney's search for the lost bass led one person on England's south coast to recall an old bass guitar in the attic. A few days later, the Beatles bass was back with the ex-Beatle, as the “Lost Bass Project” describes it.
Paul McCartney was voted the ninth best bassist in pop music history by Rolling Stone in 2020. Since 1963 he has owned another Höfner bass, which he still uses in concerts today. Now he could add a little extra aura to his game.
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