Paul’s Original 1961 Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar Has Been Found!

[Lord Reith]

Btw the bridge has been changed because a right hander was playing it. You can't just change the strings, you have to change the bridge as well. Otherwise the intonation would be shot to pieces.

[monkeesfan1965]

Btw the bridge has been changed because a right hander was playing it. You can't just change the strings, you have to change the bridge as well. Otherwise the intonation would be shot to pieces.

I have had many over the decades. THe bridge has little pieces of fret wire as saddles, and "fret lines" cut. I cannot confirm of course wether or not it is a replacement, but you could, with this bridge, pull the fret/saddles and reverse them in the slots to play it left or right. Wondering if it was marred or scratched. My 68 was stolen from me in 1985. I got it back by chance 100 miles away 10 years later. After playing it for a week, I realized that it had been badly abused and there was a split in the body at the binding, along with numorous dings, belt scratches and a warp in the neck that I could not truss out. I ended up selling it of as a parts guitar </3

EDIT- I believe I see where the fret wire saddles WERE indeed reversed... It "may" still be the original bridge!

[cliftdean74]

The recovered bass with original case:

[Bambam34]

After Over 50 Years It Has Been Found!! Didn't Paul Say He Would Do A Special Concert With It When It Was Found?

[greenfrog12]

that looks like a right handed bass not a left. Looks like fake news to me. check the strings out
[/q

Doesn't the position of the control plate verify that it is a left handed model.

[Mr Bump]

This story actually made the national TV news last night! The report was slightly factually challenged, but great to see it getting some coverage.

BTW, Paul had a replica made a few years ago - did anyone spot it in the "Now and Then" video?

bass2.JPG (16.06 KiB) Viewed 448 times

[Lord Reith]

THe bridge has little pieces of fret wire as saddles, and "fret lines" cut.
EDIT- I believe I see where the fret wire saddles WERE indeed reversed... It "may" still be the original bridge!

Yes I'm of the opinion that this might be the original bridge, but has been moved for reasons unknown. Oddly the strings are arranged for a right handed player, but the "saddles" on the bridge are arranged for a leftie. But the bridge has also been moved, which tells us it might have come loose (anyone know how it was attached?). In that case, someone has not used the opportunity to simply replace the bridge with a right hand orientation but had the original leftie bridge re-attached in a different spot. This implies that either (1) they knew who it belonged to and its significance and therefore did not want to discard the old bridge or (2) they were a completely clueless person who knew nothing about basses. It would have sounded completely horrible with a left hand bridge and right hand stringing.

Ian Horne the roadie thought that Dik Mik of Hawkwind might have stolen it as he lived in that street, and apparently threatened him with a wrench at the time to try and get him to cough it up! Full story is over at guitarplayer but here is the juicy bit:

Given his line of work, Horne knew many of those musicians. And when the bass went missing, he had a strong idea who took it. “Their first thought was that it was a chap named Dik Mik,” Jones says. Michael Davies — a.k.a. Dik Mik — was a keyboardist and electronics manipulator who was among the many musicians in Hawkwind, guitarist Dave Brock’s infamous space-rock group, which in one of its early 1970s incarnations also included Dik Mik’s pal, future Motörhead bassist Lemmy Kilmister. “Ian Horne thought Dik might have stolen the bass because he lived nearby and he knew Ian worked for McCartney. They got a wrench and tried to force Dik to tell them where the bass was. We know now that Dik wasn’t involved.”

Looking at the close up below this instrument seems in remarkably good condition, but I wonder if Paul will choose to reverse the rather unnattractive changes made to it in the 1960s to return it to its original 1961 state? That would involve removing the sunburst paintjob... tricky but not impossible. Of course the nobs and bezel could easily be changed.

That same guitarplayer article quotes an interview with Paul from 1994 where he plainly recalls where he got the bass and it doesn't seem to align with the accepted story. He says he saw it in the window of a small shop in the centre of Hamburg. Any musician will tell you that the memory of when and where they bought an instrument is indelibly etched into their brain, so I'm inclined to believe Paul. But he would have had to have a leftie version made specially for him.

Paul's lost '61 bass closeup.jpg (471.73 KiB) Viewed 423 times

[MeanMrMustard100]

Great article over here:

Dutch:
https://www.debassist.nl/muzieknieuws/a ... is-terecht

or Englush

https://www.debassist.nl/muzieknieuws/a ... er-is-back

[Lord Reith]

I'm also pretty sure Paul must have shed a tear or two when he held this again. I mean, this is the bass that played all those Cavern gigs, that's on the first two albums and all those radio shows from 1963. It's loss must have been an ache at the very core of his being.

[MeanMrMustard100]

I'm also pretty sure Paul must have shed a tear or two when he held this again. I mean, this is the bass that played all those Cavern gigs, that's on the first two albums and all those radio shows from 1963. It's loss must have been an ache at the very core of his being.

Yes he was, see my post:

‘When Paul got it back, he phoned me, which is quite unusual. He was excited as a school boy: “I got the bass!”