(London) With this bass guitar purchased in Hamburg in 1961, Paul McCartney played some of the Beatles’ greatest hits. More than 50 years after his disappearance, a major campaign has been launched in the hope of finding this musical “treasure”.
Paul McCartney bought this bass for £30 (which would be $51.54 at today’s rate) in Hamburg, Germany in 1961. It’s the instrument you hear in Love Me Do, She Loves You and Twist and Shout.
He played with it for concerts in Hamburg, Liverpool and during the first recordings at Abbey Road, the legendary London studio.
In January 1969, while the Beatles were in London to record Get Back, the guitar disappeared.
Nick Wass, who works for Höfner, the bass brand, and journalists Scott and Naomi Jones have launched a campaign, “The Lost Bass” project, in hopes of getting their hands back on the instrument and solving what’s going on. they call “rock and roll’s greatest mystery.”
Nick Wass told several British media outlets that Paul McCartney told him about bass guitar during a recent conversation. This is how the campaign would have started.
“It’s so important for him (Paul McCartney) to see this guitar again, because it was the first,” added Scott Jones. It may be in the hands of someone who possesses it “innocently,” “without realizing what they have.”
“This is the most important bass search in history. […] And we need your help to find his trace,” they write on the website launched for this project.
To those who believe this is an impossible mission, they recall that in 1963 John Lennon misplaced his Gibson, but it reappeared 51 years later and was sold at auction 2.4 millions of dollars.
Twenty-four hours after the launch of the project on Saturday, Scott Jones said he had received hundreds of emails, including two that could be interesting leads.
A few leads for those who would like to participate in the research: it’s a left-handed bass, with a three-piece “sunburst” finish and two pickups mounted in a solid block of black wood.
If the “Lost Bass” campaign finds the instrument, it will be returned to Paul McCartney, organizers assured.