Hundreds contact global search for Paul McCartney’s missing 1961 Höfner guitar

Hundreds of people have got in touch with organisers of a global search appeal to help find Paul McCartney‘s original Höfner bass guitar.

The Lost Bass project is appealing for information about “the most important bass in history” – the first bass the Beatles star ever bought – which he purchased in 1961 for £30 ($38) in Hamburg, Germany.

However, it disappeared in January 1969 when The Beatles were in London recording the ‘Get Back/Let It Be’ sessions.

According to The Lost Bass Project, the missing Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass is the one that can be heard on ‘Love Me Do’, ‘She Loves You’, and ‘Twist and Shout’.

Heading up the search is Höfner’s Nick Wass, who has partnered with husband and wife team Scott and Naomi Jones, who are journalists and TV producers.

Welcome to The Lost Bass Project – the global search for Paul McCartney’s original Höfner bass. Between 1961 and 1969 this bass changed the world. Today it’s the Holy Grail of Rock and Roll. Follow the trail. And help trace the bass. Visit https://t.co/4eZFkyULMv @tracingthebass pic.twitter.com/VauQW8G9bB

— TracingTheBass (@TracingTheBass) September 2, 2023

Wass told the BBC that McCartney asked him about the guitar during a recent conversation, which kickstarted the search to find it. “It’s not clear where it was stored, who might have been there,” he said. “For most people, they will remember it… it’s the bass that made the Beatles.”

Scott first became interested in the guitar’s whereabouts after watching McCartney headline Glastonbury last year.

He approached Höfner only to discover they were already having conversations about tracking it down: “Paul said to Höfner ‘surely if anyone can find this guitar, it’s you guys’, and that’s how it all came about,” Scott said.

“Now we’re working together on this. Nick has more technical knowledge about this guitar than anyone on the planet, and me and my Naomi are bringing some investigative skills.”

Since the project launched on Saturday (September 2), the team has already received hundreds of emails, with Scott telling PA news that two in particular were picked out because the information “instantly marries up with something that was known before”.

“We didn’t expect to get necessarily thousands of super-hot leads instantly… what I’m anticipating is that people who know something will probably just sort of reflect on what they know and then come forward at some point,” he added.

Asked whether he could share detailed of the leads, he said he could not provide a name of someone mentioned by “different people”.

“The name [has] cropped up a few times now, because it’s disconnected and it’s coming from a range of sources. Obviously, things like that stand out,” he said.

The investigative journalist added that it was possible someone could “innocently” own the bass “without realising what they’ve got”.

He added that it’s “worth looking at the John Lennon acoustic guitar” that he used to write ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.

“That guitar was stolen from a Beatles Christmas show in Finsbury Park in 1963 but it turned up 51 years later in America and somebody bought that guitar for innocently for 175 dollars.”

Similarly, earlier this year, Steve Vai’s long-lost ‘Swiss Cheese’ guitar used in the music video for David Lee Roth’s ‘Yankee Rose’ was recovered after 36 years.