Paul McCartney’s long-lost Höfner bass guitar — dubbed “the most important bass in history” for its role in the creation and recordings of dozens of the Beatles classics — has been found over 50 years after it first went missing.
The Lost Bass Project, a grassroots campaign that hoped to discover what happened to the instrument, announced Wednesday that the 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar had been rediscovered, and McCartney himself confirmed in a statement that he was back in possession of the bass.
“Following the launch of last year’s Lost Bass project, Paul’s 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar, which was stolen in 1972, has been returned,” McCartney’s official site announced. “The guitar has been authenticated by Höfner and Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”
The Lost Bass Project was launched in 2018 but only came to prominence in 2023 when worldwide coverage reinvigorated the search. Initial tips revealed that the bass hadn’t simply gone missing: It was stolen from the back of a van on October 10, 1972, in the Notting Hill area of London.
Without naming names, The Lost Bass Project managed to track down the perpetrator of the robbery and then who the thief sold the bass to, the landlord of a Notting Hill pub. “Looking into old records we established who that was and then gained further information about what happened next, who had the bass and what was done with it. We were able to trace the bass over the years,” the Lost Bass Project wrote of the search.
A September 2023 article in the British press brought additional attention to the search, including its most important lead.
“As a result of the publicity someone living in a terraced house on the south coast of England remembered an old bass guitar that was in their attic,” The Lost Bass Project wrote Wednesday. “They got this out and realized just what they had. Within days it was back with Paul McCartney!”
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Despite its half-century in the wilderness, McCartney’s 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar — which he purchased that year in Hamburg and used on the Beatles’ first two albums, including the hits “Love Me Do” and “She Loves You” — thankfully just had some wear-and-tear.
“The bass is complete and still with its original case,” the Lost Bass Project added. “It will need some repairs to make it playable again, but a team of professionals can easily carry these out.”