Saturday, June 11, 2011

The First Hofner

June, 1961

No doubt Paul has received his special order by now, a left handed Hofner Bass, model number 500/1.  Any guitarist can easily imagine how excited he must have been, especially since he is moving up from a broken down cheap electric guitar, strung with piano strings.

He ordered the new Hofner, a real professional bass, if an inexpensive one, from a Hamburg music store (likely a Steinway Music Store, situated near the Reeperbahn) with some of his earnings.  This guitar is an early incarnation of the violin shaped bass that he eventually will make famous, but is not the one that most Beatle fans will instantly recognize.  This earlier version of this guitar has both pick-ups mounted close together near the neck.  (This is the guitar that is later stolen during the filming of Let It Be at the tail end of the Beatles story.  The missing bass inspires the plot line dramatized in Paul's My Brave Face video.)

Now, two of the iconic instruments are in the hands of the Beatles.  John has his beloved Rickenbacker 325 and Paul his Beatle bass.  We have to wait a little while yet for George to hook up with his famous Gretsch Duo-Jet, but can't you just feel the momentum building?

1 comment:

  1. i love the hofner :) And its amazing that he still plays a hofner today. And thanks for the comments on my drawings!

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