Although he has left his mark on music history, 81-year-old Paul McCartney still has one regret: Losing his very first bass guitar, a Höfner 500/1 model, along the way. Officially lost in 1969 when the Beatles split up, the legendary instrument has become a kind of pop Holy Grail.
The Lost Bass operation was launched on September 2, aimed at gathering any information that might help locate the famous instrument with the help of a website, a hashtag (#tracingthebass), and an international press campaign.
Why launch the initiative 54 years after the fact? Nick Wass, consultant and former marketing director of German luthier Höfner, said: "A few years ago, I went to Paul's studio in Sussex, England, to work on his instruments. He asked me: 'Do you know where my first bass went?' I sensed how sentimental it was for him, so I started researching – but the instrument could be anywhere in the world. I teamed up with Scott and Naomi Jones [former English journalists], who have many contacts and that was that."
If the multi-instrumentalist (he also plays piano) has never forgotten his Höfner 500/1, it's because it represents a significant part of his life. In the early days of the Beatles, McCartney played guitar, while Stuart Sutcliffe played bass. When Sutcliffe left the band in 1961, McCartney replaced him and took over his instrument.
But on a trip to Hamburg, Germany, with his three friends, he found a surprisingly light, semi-acoustic brunette (the model also comes in blond). "Its symmetrical curves are reminiscent of a violin, enabling a left-handed player like Paul to play it," said Wass.
The little German guitar also had the merit of being affordable (the equivalent of £30 at the time), unlike the heavy, expensive US models. "As soon as I bought it, I fell in love with it," said McCartney in The Beatles Diary. An Intimate Day-by-Day History (Hors Collection, 2000), by Barry Miles. From 1961 to 1963, the artist and his bass forged not only the sound, but also the legend of The Beatles: With it, he recorded Please Please Me and With the Beatles (1963), the group's first two albums, and composed She Loves You and Love Me Do, where its muffled timbre can be heard, "like the sound of a fist banging on an old cupboard," said Wass.
The bass followed its owner everywhere, from Abbey Road to world tours. But in 1963, a newcomer arrived: Another Höfner sent by the luthier, the original being in need of repair. "It was restored in 1964 and transformed quite a bit – in particular, it was painted yellow," said Wass. McCartney used it as an emergency bass until 1965 when the Beatles threw it all in. By then, the band was tired: too many frenzied fans and exhausting concerts. "They were fed up with being seen as the Fab Four, and not as a real rock band," said Wass. "They decided to stop touring, changed their haircuts and their look."
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