Help! Global search is launched for Paul McCartney’s missing bass guitar that he bought for £30 and now could be worth more than £10million
Staff! A global search is underway for Paul McCartney’s missing bass guitar, which he bought for £30 and could now be worth more than £10 million
- Do you know where the guitar could be? Email gemma.parry@mailonline.co.uk
A global search has been launched to track down Paul McCartney’s missing bass guitar, which he bought for £30 and could now be worth more than £10 million.
Despite the small price tag attached to the guitar when he bought it in 1961, the instrument would become an important part of the rise of Beatlemania, with McCartney taking it on stage regularly from 1961 to 1963, until it disappeared just before the band broke up. went together. upwards.
He bought the guitar in Germany while the band was living in Hamburg, with McCartney previously saying he “fell in love with it” because the shape made it look more symmetrical when played left-handed.
The film was last seen in the days before McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison climbed onto the roof of their Savile Row offices in 1969 for their final performance.
Since then, McCartney, 81, has been on the hunt for his ‘favorite’ guitar, a fiddle-shaped Höfner 500/1 electric bass.
The bass was last seen in the days before McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison climbed onto the roof of their Savile Row offices in 1969 for their final performance.
McCartney bought the guitar in Germany while the band lived in Hamburg, with McCartney previously saying he “fell in love with it” because the shape made it look more symmetrical when played left-handed.
The instrument can also be seen in Get Back, the Peter Jackson documentary that will be released in 2021
Although he put it aside briefly during his time in the band, he picked it up again for recording sessions in London when the group recorded Let it Be. The instrument can also be seen in Get Back, the Peter Jackson documentary that will be released in 2021.
Now Höfner has stepped in to help the musician with his desperate search for the instrument, which is now valued at at least £10 million due to its extensive music history.
The quest was launched online with the hashtag “tracingthebass,” inviting people from around the world to help trace the quest.
Höfner basses have been McCartney’s brand of choice throughout his career. Since 1961 he has owned four Höfner basses and to this day plays one of the basses donated to him by the German company.
Höfner director Nick Wass told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘I’ve worked closely with Paul McCartney’s team over the years, and when I met Paul we talked about his first Höfner bass and where it could be today.
“Paul said to me, ‘Hey, since you’re from Höfner, can’t you help find my bass?’ And that was the reason for this great hunt’.
Despite the small price tag attached to the guitar when he bought it in 1961, the instrument would become a major part of the rise of Beatlemania, with McCartney regularly joining him on stage from 1961 to 1963.
Theories about what happened to the instrument vary, from rumors that a thief took the bass from a cupboard in Abbey Road, to a story that it went missing in the basement of the Beatles offices in Savile Row.
Mr Wass added that the bass could be appreciated ‘more like a Van Gogh or a Picasso than just an instrument’.
“This is the bass Paul played in Hamburg, at the Cavern Club and Abbey Road,” he said.
“Paul would be so happy and excited if this bass could reach him.”