“When I saw this Let It Be footage, I noticed how easy it looked to play,” Paul McCartney said, reflecting on why he brought his Höfner bass out of storage after years of using other instruments.
Describing the bass, McCartney remarked, “It’s as if it were just a little jacket or something. It’s so light, it’s like a little piece of balsa wood.”
The Höfner 500/1 violin bass, which he played from the Beatles’ Hamburg days through the height of Beatlemania and on the Let It Be album, became synonymous with him due to constant touring and media exposure, earning the nickname “the Beatle bass.”
However, from 1966 onward, McCartney set the Höfner aside in favor of other basses, including the Rickenbacker 4001S and Fender Jazz. The Höfner made a brief return for the Let It Be sessions in 1969, as seen in both the original film and the 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back. Its revival was largely sentimental, aligning with the band’s effort to return to their live rock and roll roots.
For much of McCartney’s early work with Wings, the Rickenbacker remained his primary bass until he later transitioned to a Yamaha BB-1200 and, in the 1980s, a Wal five-string. During this period, both of his Höfner basses disappeared from use. His first Höfner, in fact, was stolen in 1972 and remained missing until it resurfaced in 2024.
By the late 1980s, two key influences led McCartney to pick up his remaining Höfner once more. As he explained in a 1990 interview with Guitar Player, the first was the encouragement of fellow musician and Beatles fan, Elvis Costello.
In 1987, McCartney and Costello collaborated on songwriting and recording, with their work appearing on Flowers in the Dirt (McCartney) and Spike (Costello). Costello, known for his appreciation of vintage instruments, urged McCartney to revisit the Höfner.
“He’s sort of a fan of older instruments,” McCartney explained. “He often uses Höfner guitars because they’ve got a real honky sound that he likes. It’s a period sound.”
But beyond his love for vintage tones, Costello, as a lifelong Beatles fan, also encouraged McCartney to revive the instrument for sentimental reasons.
“During the work on Flowers in the Dirt, he said, ‘Why don’t you try the Höfner?’” McCartney recalled. “It was a little bit like pulling it out of mothballs. I had resigned myself to not working with it again because it’s not very precise, but he said, ‘Oh, I love the sound, and you must be able to get it in tune.’”
With some adjustments—particularly positioning the bridge at a precise angle—the Höfner was brought back into playable condition.
McCartney ultimately used it on Flowers in the Dirt’s “My Brave Face,” showcasing it prominently in the music video, and on “Veronica” from Spike.
Despite Costello’s influence, what truly convinced McCartney to fully embrace the Höfner once again was watching footage of himself playing it during the Beatles’ Let It Be rooftop concert in 1969.
“I saw a little bit of the Let It Be film of the Beatles on the roof doing ‘Get Back,’” he said. “I realized that the way I was holding the Höfner was not like you hold a big, heavy thing that weighs you down and you sort of become a part of it.”
He noted the contrast with his heavier instruments, saying, “The Wals are considerably heavier, and the Rickenbackers are in between.”
The film revealed how effortlessly he played the Höfner, almost like a lead guitar. He specifically highlighted his work on “Don’t Let Me Down,” particularly during the outro, as an example of the bass’s fluidity.
“So when I saw this Let It Be footage, I noticed how easy it looked to play,” McCartney said. “And because it’s so light, you play guitary stuff on it; you play quite fast stuff. It just kind of flows more naturally than if you’re on a physically heavy bass. So I got back into it.”
Following this revelation, McCartney incorporated the Höfner into his tours, playing it on songs such as “This One,” “My Brave Face,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Coming Up,” and, of course, “Get Back.” It remains his most recognizable bass to this day, which is why he continues to use it in concert.
When his stolen Höfner was finally recovered in 2024, one of McCartney’s first acts was to bring it onstage.
While McCartney is widely recognized as a bassist, he has often stated that he considers himself a guitarist first, as that was his original instrument. Due to his left-handedness, he even learned to play right-handed guitars when necessary, which helped shape his adaptability.
Even with his long history of experimenting with different basses, the Höfner remains the instrument most closely associated with McCartney—both in his early days with the Beatles and in his enduring career.
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