Paul McCartney’s Hofner bass guitar, which went missing in 1961, is now the subject of a global search effort to locate its whereabouts. The entire world is joining in the search for the Hofner guitar that once belonged to Beatles legend, Paul McCartney.

Paul McCartney, the frontman and lead singer of The Beatles, always captivated crowds. This led him to invest in the best instruments, and he owned three Hofner bass guitars, with the first one being his favourite, as reported in various accounts.
Over 50 years ago, during a tour in Germany, Paul stumbled upon a shop selling one of his favourite guitars, the Hofner electric bass, at an incredible price of 30 euros. It was found in one of Hamburg’s most renowned music stores called “Steinway Musikhaus.”

McCartney’s purchase of a bass guitar from this shop was a dream come true for the company. However, 50 years later, the guitar had vanished, leaving McCartney without hope of recovery.

Determined to locate the missing piece, the German company from which Paul had purchased the guitar initiated a search called “The Lost Bass Project,” encouraging anyone with information about the guitar’s whereabouts to come forward.

The bass guitar was as iconic as McCartney himself, featuring in many of The Beatles’ best songs, such as “Twist and Shout,” “Love Me Do,” and “She Loves You.”
Finally, the company’s website revealed that McCartney had acquired the guitar in 1961. This was the bass McCartney played in Hamburg in 1961 at the Cavern in Liverpool and during the first Abbey Road recordings, which fueled Beatlemania.

The guitar disappeared while the group was recording their song “Get Back/Let it Be” in London during the winter of 1969. This was when the Hofner 500/1 violin Bass suddenly went missing.

The company’s website emphasized that the Loss Bass Project is a global-scale search, akin to “solving the greatest mystery in the history of rock and roll.” No one has ever definitively established where the bass was stored, and no one has come forward with an account of its fate.

The campaign is directed at Beatles fans worldwide who are passionate about every aspect of the Beatles. Whether it’s Lennon’s famous guitar, which resurfaced 51 years later and was sold for a whopping 2.4 million US dollars, or this guitar, which remains “lost” for now. The campaign shares photos of the original bass and provides information about the instrument from its purchase to its disappearance. The website also explains how to identify fake guitars and copycats.
In one of his interviews in the 1960s, McCartney stated that he had three guitars, but since he bought the first one, he remained a fan of it.