Hundreds of people join forces worldwide to search for Paul McCartney’s missing 1961 Höfner guitar

Hundreds of people have contacted the organizers of a global search appeal to help find the original Paul McCartney Höfner.

The Lost Bass project is seeking information on “the most important bass in history”, the first one bought by the Beatles star in 1961 for 30 pounds ($38) in Hamburg, Germany.

However, he disappeared in January 1969, when the Beatles were in London recording the “Get Back/Let It Be” sessions.

According to The Lost Bass Project, the missing Höfner 500/1 violin bass is the one heard on ‘Love Me Do’, ‘She Loves You’ and ‘Twist and Shout’.

Leading the search is Höfner’s Nick Wass, who has teamed up with Scott and Naomi Jones, journalists and television producers.

Wass told the BBC that McCartney asked him about the guitar during a recent conversation, starting the search to find it. “It is not clear where he was kept, who could be there,” he said. “For most people, they will remember it … it’s the bass that made the Beatles.”

Scott became interested in the guitar after seeing McCartney headline at Glastonbury last year.

He contacted Höfner and found out that they were already talking about finding it: “Paul said to Höfner, ‘If anyone can find this guitar, it’s you,’ and so it just happened,” explains Scott.

“Now we’re working together on this. Nick has more technical knowledge about this guitar than anyone on the planet, and me and my Naomi are bringing some investigative skills to the table.”

Since the launch of the project, on Saturday, September 2, the team has already received hundreds of emails. Scott explained to PA news that they chose two in particular because the information “fits right in with something that was already known.”

“We didn’t expect to get thousands of great hot leads right away… what I imagine is that people who know something are likely to think about what they know and at some point it’s express,” he said.

When asked if he could share the details of the leads, he said he could not provide the name of a person who cited “various people”.

“Name [ha] appeared several times, because it is offline and comes from different sources. Of course, these kinds of things attract attention,” he said.

The investigative journalist said it was possible for someone “innocently” to possess the bass “without realizing what they have.”

He also said that John Lennon’s acoustic guitar which he used to write ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ is worth a look.

“That guitar was stolen from a Beatles Christmas show in Finsbury Park in 1963, but it turned up in America 51 years later and someone innocently bought it for $175.”

Similarly, Steve Vai’s missing “Swiss Cheese” guitar, used in David Lee Roth’s “Yankee Rose” music video, was found after 36 years earlier this year.