The early days of the Beatles boasted some distinct iconography: the Fab Four’s mop-top haircuts, fit leather boots, and the violin Höfner bass that Paul McCartney was playing all the way back in the band’s seedy Hamburg days. McCartney’s bass guitar was as signature to the band as, say, John Lennon’s black and white Rickenbacker or the way Ringo Starr swung his head from side to side while he played his kit upstage.
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However, the instantly recognizable Höfner didn’t survive the creative, musical, and aesthetic changes McCartney underwent over the decade he was in the Beatles. Macca had moved on to new axes of various makes and models, leaving his violin-shaped bass to collect dust in storage.
How Paul McCartney Decided To Revisit His Iconic Höfner Bass
By the time the Beatles had transitioned from a touring band to a studio band in the last few years of the 1960s, Paul McCartney had already started experimenting with different guitar styles. He traded his violin Höfner bass for a Rickenbacker 4001S that John Rickenbacker had personally gifted Macca at the Beatles’ 1965 Hollywood Bowl performance. The Rickenbacker would become McCartney’s go-to bass during his time with Wings. But when McCartney began working with Elvis Costello in the late 1980s, he had a change of heart about his trusty old Höfner.
Costello was the first to bring up the Höfner bass during McCartney and Costello’s Flowers in the Dirt and Spike sessions, respectively. However, it was old footage of the Beatles’ iconic rooftop concert in January 1969 that sealed the deal for McCartney. “I saw a little bit of the Let It Be film of the Beatles on the roof doing “Get Back,” and I realized that the way I was holding the Höfner was not like you hold a big, heavy thing that weighs you down, and you sort of become a part of it,” McCartney told Guitar Player.
“I noticed how easy it looked to play,” McCartney continued. “Because it’s so light, you play guitary stuff on it. You play quite fast stuff. It just kind of flows more naturally than if you’re on a physically heavy bass. So, I got back into it.” Interestingly, though, the Höfner bass that McCartney picked back up after watching the rooftop concert wasn’t the one he was playing for that historic performance.
The Former Beatle Was Revisiting A Dupe
When Paul McCartney decided to revisit his iconic Höfner bass in the late 1980s, he wasn’t playing the violin bass that had spent so many nights in the dank, smoky depths of the Cavern Club in Liverpool. McCartney bought a duplicate Höfner in 1963 so that he would never be left empty-handed if disaster struck. And it’s a good thing, too, because almost a decade later, in 1972, that’s precisely what happened. That October, someone stole McCartney’s original Höfner from the back of a van hauling equipment.
The mystery of McCartney’s missing bass persisted for years. It wasn’t until 2018 that McCartney seriously attempted to recover the missing instrument with the help of Nick Wass, Scott and Naomi Jones, and Cathy Harrison. Together, the group formed the Lost Bass project. Through the project’s research, they discovered that the thief who originally stole the Höfner later sold it to a landlord in London. The instrument was passed along to a family who kept it in their attic storage until news began circulating about the reinvigorated search for the lost Beatle bass.
Cathy Guest contacted the Lost Bass project about the instrument, which was then promptly returned to its rightful owner. McCartney got his bass back, Guest received a hefty monetary reward, and all was right with the world.
Photo by David Redfern/Redferns
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