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Paul McCartney’s original bass guitar, which the legendary musician used in the early years of The Beatles, has been found and returned after it was stolen more than five decades ago.
The 81-year-old singer-songwriter was reunited with the Höfner 500/1 left-handed violin bass after its maker and a husband-and-wife team of journalists embarked on a search for the missing instrument in 2018 that later became crowdsourced. campaign called The Lost Bass Project.
A statement shared Wednesday on McCartney’s website confirmed that the guitar had been discovered and returned to its original owner.
“Following the release of last year’s Lost Bass project, Paul’s 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass, which was stolen in 1972, has been returned. The guitar has been authenticated by Höfner and Paul is incredibly grateful to everyone involved” , reads the statement. read.
Paul McCartney was reunited with his stolen bass after more than 50 years. (Getty Images)
Originally purchased by McCartney in 1961 for $37, the guitar is now estimated to be worth $12.6 million, according to The Associated Press.
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The guitar was McCartney’s primary instrument when the Beatles began a series of residencies in Hamburg, Germany. McCartney played the instrument on The Beatles’ first two albums and appeared on hits such as “Love Me Do,” “Twist and Shout” and “She Loves You.”
“Because I was left-handed, I looked less dumb because I was symmetrical,” McCartney once said, according to the AP. “I got into it. And once I bought it, I fell in love with it.”
The guitar was originally believed to have been stolen during the iconic band’s recording sessions for their final album, “Let It Be,” in 1969.
The bass was stolen in 1972. (Mark and Colleen Hayward/Redferns)
McCartney had asked Höfner to help him find the lost instrument that helped launch Beatlemania across the universe, Scott Jones, a journalist who teamed with Höfner executive Nick Wass to locate it, said Friday.
“Paul said to me, ‘Hey, since you’re from Höfner, couldn’t you help me find my bass?'” Wass said, according to the AP. “And that’s what sparked this big search. Sitting there, seeing what the missing bass means to Paul, I was determined to solve the mystery.”
The Lost Bass Project was originally launched in 2018, but research ultimately stalled. However, in 2022, Jones and his wife Naomi teamed up with Wass to help the search gain more media attention and enlist the public’s help.
After The Lost Bass Project relaunched last fall, the group received 600 emails in 48 hours containing the “little gems that got us to where we are today,” Jones told the AP.
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Sound engineer Ian Horne, who had worked with McCartney’s band Wings, contacted The Lost Bass Project and revealed that the bass had been stolen from the back of his van in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood in 1972. .
“I knew it was Paul’s original Höfner bass that had been stolen, and I knew what it meant to him,” Horne wrote in an email, according to The Lost Bass Project via CBS.
McCartney played Höfner bass on The Beatles’ early recordings. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo)
“Trevor (Jones, McCartney’s other sound engineer at the time) and I did everything we could to find him, but he was gone. In the end, we had to go to Paul’s house on Cavendish Avenue and tell him that the team had been stolen from In the back of the truck. We went into the room and told Paul. He told us not to worry and we kept our jobs. He’s a good man, Paul. I worked for him for six years after he low disappeared. But I have carried the guilt all my life.”
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The Lost Bass Project posted the search update on their website and received an email from an individual who revealed that his father had stolen the bass. The man didn’t set out to steal McCartney’s instrument and panicked when he realized what he had, Jones said.
The thief, who was not named, later sold it to Ron Guest, owner of the Admiral Blake pub, for a few pounds and a few beers. Guest’s family learned of the search and his daughter-in-law Cathy Guest contacted McCartney’s studio.
Cathy said the instrument that had been stored in her attic for years resembled McCarthy’s lost bass.
McCartney performs during the 2022 Glastonbury Festival in Glastonbury, England. (Harry Durrant/Getty Images)
The guitar was passed from Ron Guest to his eldest son, who died in a car accident, and then to a younger son, Haydn Guest, who was married to Cathy and died in 2020.
The bass was returned to McCartney in December and was authenticated about two months later.
The estimated value of the instrument is based on the fact that a Gibson acoustic guitar that Kurt Cobain played on “MTV Unplugged” sold for $6 million, Jones said. But it was almost worthless for the last half century.
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“The thief couldn’t sell it,” Jones said. “Clearly the Guest family never intended to sell it. It’s a red flag because the minute you walk up to it, someone says, ‘That’s Paul McCartney’s guitar.'”
“It is perhaps the most iconic lost musical instrument of all time. Now it is back with the man who bought it all those years ago. The bass is finally back where it belongs,” wrote The Lost Bass Project.
“We thought we would never see him again. But we did!” they added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.