Former Beatle has played Höfner’s iconic “violin bass” since 1961
Close to 70 years after German instrument company Höfner started selling an electric bass that looked like a violin, the company has filed for bankruptcy. The news has hit Paul McCartney, who has made the Höfner 500/1 his signature instrument, especially hard.
“It is very sad to see Höfner go out of business,” McCartney wrote on Instagram. “They have been making instruments for over 100 years, and I bought my first Höfner bass in the Sixties. I have loved it ever since. It’s a wonderful instrument to play: lightweight, and it encourages me to play quite freely. It also offers pleasing variations in tone that I enjoy. So commiserations to everyone at Höfner, and thank you for all your help over the years.”
The Beatles‘ association with Höfner instruments goes back to their Quarrymen days. George Harrison’s brother Harry taught him guitar chords on a Höfner Committee and later played a Höfner President and a Höfner Club 40. John Lennon’s first “good” guitar, according to Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles biography Tune In, was also a Club 40. The band’s original bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, started playing a Höfner President 333, which looked similar to the instrument McCartney would later make famous, in 1960. During times when Sutcliffe wasn’t around, McCartney would pick up the 333 and play it upside down, as he is left-handed.
McCartney purchased his first Höfner 500/1 in Hamburg at a Steinway & Sons shop in 1961. He was able to get a left-handed instrument on short order, according to Tune In, because Höfner was based in Germany. The instrument cost him a little less than £31. Höfner would later give McCartney another left-handed “Violin bass” in 1963 after the band broke into the mainstream.
Somebody stole the original 500/1 from the back of a van in London on Oct. 10, 1972. Through the help of a grassroots campaign called “The Lost Bass Project,” the thief was identified, and the bass was returned to McCartney in 2024. The instrument’s history will be the focus of an upcoming documentary.
