Last Wednesday, the 14th, Paul McCartney announced that the iconic Höfner 500/1 bass had returned to the eternal Beatle. The instrument was found after being missing for 52 years, thanks to The Lost Bass Project, which began in 2018.
Paul bought the instrument in 1961 for £30 (about R$187) in Hamburg, Germany, even before the Beatles became famous. Currently, the bass is valued at at least £10 million (approximately R$62 million).
The bass was used by McCartney to record the band's first two studio albums, which included classic hits such as "I Saw Her Standing There," "Love Me Do," and "All My Loving."
After 1963, McCartney began using the 1961 Höfner 500/1 as an "emergency bass," replacing it with a nearly identical model. The Beatle only returned to using the bass during the recording of Let It Be , the band's last album. However, the instrument continued to travel with him until it was stolen in 1972.
So, who was Höfner with?
Film student Ruaidhri Guest posted on his social media that he received the bass guitar, supposedly belonging to Paul McCartney, as part of an inheritance. The musician's team and Höfner himself authenticated the instrument.
According to the website of " The Lost Bass Project ", the instrument had been stolen from the back of a 3-ton van during the night of October 10, 1972, in the Notting Hill area of London.
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