By Brian Melley -
The Associated Press
Paul McCartney no longer cries over his original bass.
A five-year search by the instrument's maker, aided by a couple of journalists, helped reunite the former Beatle with the distinctive 1961 violin-shaped Höfner electric that disappeared half a century ago and is estimated to
have
e worth 10 million pounds sterling ($12.6 million).
McCartney had asked Höfner to help him find the missing instrument that helped launch Beatlemania across the universe, Scott Jones, a journalist who teamed up with Höfner executive Nick Wass, said Friday.
File photo of Paul McCartney performs during his "Got Back" tour on June 16, 2022 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Christopher Smith / Christopher Smith/Invision/AP
“Paul said to me, 'Hey, you're from Höfner, couldn't you help me find my bass?'” Wass said.
“And that's what sparked this big hunt.
Sitting there, seeing what the missing bass means to Paul, he was determined to solve the mystery.”
McCartney bought the bass for about £30 ($37) in 1961 when the Beatles were developing their skills during a series of performances in Hamburg, Germany.
The instrument was played on the Beatles' first two albums and appeared on hits such as
Love Me Do
,
Twist and Shout
and
Ella she Loves You
.
“Because I'm left-handed, it looked less stupid because it was symmetrical,” McCartney once said.
“When I bought it I fell in love with it.”
It was rumored to have been stolen around the time the Beatles were recording their final album,
Let it Be
, in 1969. But no one was sure when it disappeared.
What started out as a long and winding road for Wass to track down bass accelerated when Jones serendipitously joined the hunt after watching McCartney's 2022 Glastonbury Festival headliner.
The stage lights at one point seemed to shine like rays of sunlight on his bass and Jones wondered if it was the same instrument McCartney had played in the early '60s.
When he later searched the Internet, he was surprised to discover that he did not have the original bass.
“I was stunned, amazed,” Jones said.
“I think we live in a world where the Beatles could do almost anything and it would get a lot of attention.”
Jones and his wife, Naomi, both journalists and researchers, contacted Wass to spread the message more widely.
After hitting a dead end following a lead about a tour worker for
The Who
, they relaunched The Lost Bass Project in September and within 48 hours were inundated with 600 emails containing the “little gems that got us where they were.” we are today,” Jones said.
One of those emails came from sound engineer Ian Horne, who had worked with McCartney's band Wings, and was the first major breakthrough in the search.
Horne said the bass guitar had been stolen from the back of his van one night in 1972 in the Notting Hill area of London.
Investigators posted the new information on their website in October, adding that Horne said McCartney told him not to worry about the theft and that he continued working for him for another six years.
[The image of the legendary Beatles covered in snow that goes around the world]
“But I've carried the guilt my whole life,” Horne said.
After posting that update, a bigger opportunity came when they were contacted by a person who claimed their father had stolen the bass.
The man had not planned to take McCartney's instrument and panicked when he realized what he had stolen, Jones said.
The thief, who was not identified, ended up selling it to Ron Guest, owner of the Admiral Blake pub, for a few pounds and a few beers.
By the time the Joneses began searching for Guest's relatives, the news had already reached his family.
Her daughter-in-law contacted McCartney's studio.
Cathy Guest indicated that an old bass that had been in her attic for years looked like the one they were looking for.
It had passed from Ron Guest to his eldest son, who died in a car accident, and then to a younger son, Haydn Guest, who was married to Cathy and died in 2020.
The instrument was returned to McCartney in December, but it took about two months to authenticate it.
The bass that was stolen from Paul McCartney more than 50 years ago and that he was able to recover a few months ago.
The Lost Bass Project
Those in charge of the project planned to announce the news themselves, but were upstaged by Cathy Guest's son, Ruaidhri Guest, a 21-year-old film student who posted photos on the social network X of the bass and wrote: "I inherited this article that has been returned to Paul McCartney.
He shares the news.”
He posted a message Friday saying the family had been inundated with interview requests and that he would eventually tell his story.
The estimated value of the instrument is based on the fact that a Gibson acoustic guitar that Kurt Cobain played on MTV Unplugged sold for $6 million (£4.7 million), Jones said.
But it was almost worthless for the last half century.
“The thief couldn't sell it,” Jones explained.
“Clearly the Guest family never tried to sell it.
It's a red flag because the moment you come out, someone is going to say, 'That's Paul McCartney's guitar.'
Now it's McCartney once again.
His official website posted a message announcing his return, saying that “Paul is incredibly grateful to everyone involved.”