The Lost Bass: How the 1961 Höfner Bass Found its Way Home

In 2024, the story of Paul’s ‘lost bass’ made headlines all over the world, as he was finally reunited with his beloved, original Höfner after a 50 year search.  As this remarkable story comes to television screens this Saturday 11th April, McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass premieres on BBC Two and will also be available on BBC iPlayer.

Instrumental in the discovery and restoration of the bass was Paul’s Technical Manager, Keith Smith, who works with Paul at his studio in Sussex. In Keith’s words, this is how the Höfner bass went from being a long-lost legend to being Paul’s companion on stage again, at the final show of 2024 at The O2 in London. 

The story of ‘The Lost Bass’ starts in 1961 when The Beatles were in Hamburg. After Stuart Sutcliffe decided to leave the band, Paul took over as the bass player and borrowed Stuart’s instrument for a short time, which, being left-handed, he had to play upside-down. Paul and George Harrison would often look in music shop windows, dreaming about owning the posh ones. So, needing a bass of his own, Paul spotted one in the Steinway Music store in Germany. 

Steinway are best known for their pianos, but on the lower floor of the shop they had guitars and drums and other instruments, which is where he saw this bass: the 500/1 violin bass from Höfner. At this time, The Beatles didn’t have a lot of money; they were playing in nightclubs in exchange for beer and lodgings, with only a little bit of extra cash coming their way. Suitable for left-handed players, the 500/1 Höfner was also an affordable option, and Paul still tells people today that it cost him about £30, or under 300 Deutsch Marks back then. He ended up playing the bass through the rest of his time in Hamburg, then brought it back to the UK, and the first two Beatles albums (Please Please Me and With the Beatles) were recorded at Abbey Road with this original 1961 bass.

In 1963 ‘Beatlemania’ was starting to take hold, and Paul was often pictured with the Höfner bass. It was featured all over the place: Paul playing it on stage, of course, but also appearing in photos, album covers and merchandise. It became the unofficial ‘Beatle Bass’, and, seizing the moment, Höfner sent Paul the brand new 1963 model for free. This ’63 bass was slightly different to the ’61, and quickly became Paul’s favourite. That’s what he's played ever since, and still plays at his live shows to this day. The ‘61 got put to one side and became “the spare” or back up instrument, used every now and again (if you watch the film Eight Days a Week, you'll see the spare bass sometimes at the side of the stage). 

So, how did the ’61 Höfner bass come to be ‘The Lost Bass’? We know that it was last seen on camera in 1969, when The Beatles were filming Let It Be at Twickenham Studios, and you can see it in the studio in Peter Jackson’s Get Back docuseries - it pops up every now and again! But then the big Beatles split happened, and they all went their separate ways. 

In 1972, Paul had formed Wings and was working on new music. He was shifting between studios and was going to Basing Street in Notting Hill, and during this transfer some equipment was left in a van overnight. The next day, they discovered the van had been broken into and a number of items were missing: including the ’61 Höfner bass. Understandably, Paul was pretty upset about it. It was reported to the police and they even put a little appeal in the Evening Standard newspaper, but he didn't hear a thing. It was never heard of and never seen again. 

That was that story up until about seven years ago.

In 2018, Paul and I were in the studio and were visited by Nick Wass from Höfner. We were trying to replicate Paul’s ‘63 bass, which he plays all the time, so we would have a good spare to hand. It's something we've been trying to do for years, and Nick came over to test different pickups. But then Paul let it slip - he said, “What I really want is my old one back.”

Nick jumped on the idea. He launched his own campaign - what he called ‘The Lost Bass Project’ – and set about exploring all kinds of dead ends and weird stories. There were tales about it being kept in California somewhere, or that it was bought again and stolen again, or that it had travelled all around the globe. I was convinced it was thrown away years ago, as it wasn’t a fancy or expensive instrument. Paul and I also had this joke where we imagined some James Bond villain-type character in a castle somewhere, looking at the bass mounted on the wall as he rubs his hands together in glee! 

In reality, nothing really came of it for the first few years. Then in 2023, Nick brought some other experts on board, including journalist Scott Jones, researcher Naomi Jones and social media professional Cathy Harrison, and the project started getting coverage in the press.

Paul and I were in Los Angeles, in rehearsals for the 2023 Got Back tour. One day I was contacted by someone back home at the studio, who said that a person had appeared at the gates with a bass. I quickly asked for photos, and when they came through I thought, “Wow, that looks very, very much like the real thing”. While it was lost before I started working with Paul, I've seen lots of pictures and documentation about it, and I started to get excited. At some point in the 1960s, the ’61 bass was damaged, and The Beatles’ roadie Mal Evans took it to Selmers on Tottenham Court Road in London to have it repaired. They did a very unique repair on it, and sprayed it in a sunburst-style red finish, which is not typical of a Höfner! And the bass in the photos had the same unique finish. I contacted Nick, then I went to show Paul.

I walked in and said, “I've got something I need to talk to you about.” He said, “What's up? What’s the matter? Everything good?” I replied, “It's really good, I think.’ I was actually really nervous, because I had convinced myself by that point that this was it, the real ‘Lost Bass’.

We both sat down, and I opened my laptop. I clicked on a photo, and Paul went, “Oh, my baby. It’s my bass.” He just knew. He felt it, just from a photo, and I remember us both feeling the hairs rise on the back of our necks. He recognised the guitar case instantly, which had this green fabric, and said, “I loved that case.” We were all tingly!

The next practical step was to get it authenticated. Nick flew over to the UK from Germany again and came down to the studio, and spent a day carefully taking it apart, inspecting it, photographing it and filming it. The next day, he called me and said, “It's the one. It’s Paul’s bass.” We were all ecstatic. I told Paul and he was so happy. It was a real moment, thinking about the 50 years it had been gone and now it had returned to its rightful owner.

Unfortunately, at that moment it was unplayable. It was a real mess. The neck had cracked and split (Figure 1), it had the wrong machine heads on it (Figure 2), and the pickups didn't work (Figure 3). So, we set about restoring it. Working with Höfner, we had to make a decision on whether to restore it to its brand new condition or to its “used" condition when it was stolen in 1972. There’s a great photo of Paul from the 1960s, where he’s in the studio and you can see the bass in its repaired condition with the red sunburst-style spray, and Paul said, “I like that. I think we should leave it as it is, and just get it working.” So, Höfner put us in touch with a guy over here in the UK called Martin Harrison who is a brilliant craftsman, and he was more than happy to help even though he's semi-retired. We organised a week for me to drive up with the bass to see him, and I sat with him while he took it all apart and fixed it bit by bit. I was sending little videos and photos to Paul as we went along, showing his bass in lots of little pieces!

We had to make some small changes to get it playing again. The tuning peg was chrome as opposed to white - that was on there when it was stolen and it was still on, but it didn't work very well. It was rubbish! Generally, everything that we had no choice but to replace is vintage, and everything that we could repair is original. And I've kept all the original bits we had to take off in little box. Other than that, it's as it was when it was nicked out the back of the van in Notting Hill in 1972.

Sure enough, we got it going and it ended up looking – and sounding - really good. It looked the same, but it was clean and polished and repaired, and had the right strings and tuner. But the main thing was that it sounded brilliant - very different to the sound of the ’63 bass that Paul usually plays, but brilliant.

When it was ready, I brought it back to the studio and put it down in front of Paul, plugged it in, and he started playing. He was so happy! It was another great moment.

By this point, the 2024 Got Back tour was coming up, so the big question was if Paul could bring the bass out and play it live at one of the shows. We agreed it made the most sense to play it at one of the UK dates, as the finale of the tour, but it would need to be tested out first. Paul said, “I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's get the bass up to Manchester and I'll try it out at soundcheck, because it sounds different to what I’m used to.”

The thing is, Paul feels very comfortable with his ‘63 bass. It's like it's just part of him, and he doesn't think about it when he plays. He puts it on and everything is just totally natural, it's one of those things. So to change that during a show, when he's running from one song to the next and is in the flow, has the potential to throw him off a little bit. Anyway, we went ahead and soundchecked it in Manchester and it went really well, so we set our sights on bringing it out for the final night of the tour, at The O2 in London.

The day of the show, I had both basses ready. As it was the grand finale to the tour, closing out an amazing run of shows in South America and Europe, there were a few surprises planned, including guest appearances from Ronnie Wood and Ringo Starr. The atmosphere was incredible. Paul decided he wanted to play the ’61 bass during ‘Get Back’ - coincidentally, the same track Ronnie wanted to play on. It was going to be different to how Paul usually played the song on tour, so there was pressure to get it right!

Usually Phil (Paul’s guitar tech on tour) passes over the instruments to play, but both Paul and Phil wanted me to be the one to hand over the ’61 bass, as I’d been part of its journey. I waited at the side while Paul and the band finished playing ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ – another surprise addition to the set – and then heard Paul address the crowd. 

“50 years ago, I had a bass besides this one – my original bass,” he said. “And it got nicked, to tell you the truth, and we’ve been looking for it for 50 years. Well, I got it back! So here to make its first stage appearance in 50 years: it’s my original bass!”

I walked across and handed it to him, swapping the ’63 Höfner for the ’61. It worked brilliantly. It was great to see it back where it belongs.

So now, with all the excitement passed, it’s safely back home. And it will get used again, I think, because it is slightly different. It's nice to have an alternative bass to play, so I do think it will be used again somewhere down the line – maybe even in the studio. It’s a great story, and we’re all really pleased it had a happy ending.