Paul McCartney and the incredible story of his lost bass: how fans found it after 52 years

Paul McCartney has just recovered a Höfner brand bass, more than half a century after its theft, thanks to an in-depth investigation launched in 2018 by the website “The Lost Bass Project”.

This is a left-handed 500/1 bass model, which It was purchased by McCartney in 1961, long before he became famous, when the Beatles played in small clubs in Germany and in Liverpool clubs such as the famous The Cavern. He used it continuously until 1963, when he bought another one.

The Höfner bass has been historically linked to Paul, who has admitted on numerous occasions that he fell in love with the instrument due to its distinctive symmetrical, violin-like design.

The former Beatle originally paid £30 63 years ago for the bass, which today would cost around £800. It is estimated that it could reach $10 million at auction..

The investigation into fans

In 2018, the website “The Lost Bass Project” was created, where the story was told and They asked fans for information so they could recover it and give it to Paul.

In the first years there was no great progress in the investigation, but in May last year journalists Scott and Naomi Jones, as well as Nick Wass, former marketing director of Höfner, joined the journalists. Many articles were published in newspapers and the topic went viral on the Internet..

From there they received more than 600 calls and emails, in which they found some “fantastic clues”, and were able to reconstruct what happened after the theft, in the Notting Hill neighbourhood, of a Wings van, where their loved one was bass. .

It turned out that the thief had taken it to a local pub, but realized that it would be difficult to sell it straight away, so he asked the pub owner to keep it for him.

This disproved what everyone believed: that he had stolen from the 1969 sessions on the Abbey Road terrace. The information was provided by a sound engineer who worked with Wings in 1972, when the group made the album Red Rose Speedway and was preparing to go on tour.

Since, The guitar remained in the pub owner’s family for 52 yearsS. Last Tuesday, a young man named Ruaidhri Guest shared the following information about X: “I inherited this instrument which was returned to Paul McCartney. Share the news.”

He was the son of the pub owner and said the bass was stored in the attic of the family home.

Shortly thereafter, Paul McCartney himself released a statement on his website, where he noted: “After the release of the ‘Lost Bass Project’, Paul’s 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass, stolen in 1972, has been returned . The guitar was authenticated by Höfner and Paul is incredibly grateful to everyone involved“.