{{Short description|Famed electric bass model}} {{Redirect-distinguish|Violin bass|bass violin}} {{Infobox Guitar model |title = Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass |image = 200px |caption = Vintage 1962 model (left-handed) |manufacturer = Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. |period = 1955–Present |bodytype = Hollow{{efn|The Contemporary series models contain a centre block.}} |necktype = |scale = {{convert|30|in|mm|abbr=on}} |woodbody = Spruce (top), maple (back/sides) |woodneck = Maple |woodfingerboard = Rosewood |bridge = Höfner Ebony Bridge |pickups = Höfner 511B Humbucking Pickups |colors = Sunburst, black, laurel, rosewood and many others }} The '''Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass''' (sometimes nicknamed the "'''Beatle Bass'''") is a model of electric bass manufactured by Höfner under several varieties. It was introduced in 1955 and gained fame during the 1960s as the primary bass used by Paul McCartney of the Beatles.
==History== In 1955, Walter Höfner designed an electrically amplified semi-acoustic bass.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=https://www.hofner-guitars.com//about-hofner/hofner-history.html |title=Höfner Geschichte - Über Höfner |access-date=June 10, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510190317/http://www.hofner-guitars.com//about-hofner/hofner-history.html |archive-date=May 10, 2012 }}</ref> The hollow body made this style of bass very light and easy to play, as well as giving it a rich tone similar to that of the traditional double bass. The bass was first shown to the public at the Frankfurt Music Fair in early 1956.
Following the popularity of the Violin Bass created by its use by Paul McCartney, Höfner began producing a similar alternative in terms of sound and size with a different shaped body, the Höfner 500/2 Club Bass, in 1964.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hofner Club Bass |url=https://www.hofner-guitars.com/guitars-basses/electric-basses/club-bass.html |website=Hofner |access-date=22 April 2020 |archive-date=6 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306083709/https://www.hofner-guitars.com/guitars-basses/electric-basses/club-bass.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Description== The Höfner 500/1 is a hollow-body instrument, though lacking soundholes, and is as such commonly referred to as a semi-hollow bass. It is built using a fairly traditional style, similar to that of an acoustic guitar. It commonly features a thin maple body, a spruce top and a maple neck. The fretboard is traditionally made of rosewood, though more contemporary models have utilized other, similar tonewoods. The Höfner 500/ features a two-piece bridge system, consisting of an adjustable ebony bridge, and a metal tailpiece. The Höfner 500 is also notable for its distinctive control layout, featuring two rotary knobs, as well as three sliding knobs, controlling tone and pickup selection.
Prior to 1962, the two pickups were mounted near each other up against the heel of the neck, and as a result they had very similar tone, even when played separately. In 1962, the bass was slightly redesigned to move the second pickup up against the bridge, giving each a more distinct tone. Additional cosmetic changes were made to the bass in 1962, including the use of a different logo on the headstock and different tuning pegs. Otherwise, the instrument in both configurations featured the same "brunette" sunburst finish, the same pearloid pickguard, and the same electronics and control configuration. The earlier version is often referred to as the "Cavern bass", after the Cavern Club, where Paul McCartney famously made use of this particular model. More modern re-issues have been made in both configurations.
== Use by Paul McCartney == In July 1961, before Stuart Sutcliffe decided to leave the Beatles, he briefly lent Paul McCartney his bass until McCartney could afford one of his own.<ref>{{cite book |last=Miles |first=Barry |author-link=Barry Miles |title=Many Years From Now |publisher=Vintage-Random House |year=1997|pages= 74–75 |isbn=978-0-7493-8658-0}}</ref> McCartney was drawn to the Höfner because he felt that its symmetrical shape would mean that playing it left-handed would not look as awkward as using a cutaway guitar designed for a right-handed player.<ref name=Burrows1>{{cite book |editor-last= Terry |editor-first= Burrows |title= 1001 Guitars to Dream of Playing Before You Die |location= Sydney |publisher= Pier 9 |date= 2013 |pages= 178 |isbn= 978-1-7433-6912-8}}</ref> As Höfner did not sell a left-handed version of the 500/1 at the time, McCartney's was a custom-built model. He placed the order for the bass at the Steinway Musikhaus in Hamburg, then the largest and most prestigious music store in the city. McCartney recalls ordering the bass as it was "quite cheap" in comparison to other instruments. It is likely this was the first left-handed 500/1 bass Hofner made.<ref name="Guitar World">{{cite web |last1=Wass |first1=Nick |title=The history of Paul McCartney and his iconic Hofner 500/1 bass guitar |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/paul-mccartney-hofner-bass |website=Guitar World |access-date=6 April 2023 |date=13 July 2022}}</ref>
<blockquote> "I remember going along there, and there was this bass which was quite cheap. I couldn't afford a Fender. Fenders even then seemed to be about £100. All I could really afford was about £30 ... so for about £30, I found this Hofner violin bass. And to me, it seemed like, because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical. Didn't look as bad as a cutaway which was the wrong way. So I got into that."<ref name="Crowley">{{cite web |last= Crowley |first= John F. |title= McCartney's Guitars, Part 3 |publisher= The Canteen |url= http://www.thecanteen.com/mccartney3.html |access-date= March 27, 2019}}</ref></blockquote>
McCartney eventually acquired two basses of this model: his original 1961 model with stacked pickups, and a 1963 model with the widely separated pickups.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/hofner/hofner_guitar/table.html |title=North Coast Music: Hofner Bass Specification Table<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2010-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715083912/http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/hofner/hofner_guitar/table.html |archive-date=2010-07-15 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By early 1964, McCartney began using the newer bass almost exclusively, leaving the original as a backup. In 1964, he had his 1961 model refinished in sunburst and had a new wooden pickup holder installed around the original pickups, as the original plastic surround nearer the neck had snapped. He can be seen using this bass in the "Revolution" promo video with the strap attached to the headstock instead of the neck heel, presumably to counteract the instrument's neck dive, which is caused by its light body. He continued to regularly use the violin bass until 1965 when he switched to a Rickenbacker 4001S; afterwards, he would rotate between the two. On 30 January 1969 the Höfner Bass made its last Beatle appearance at the Apple Corps rooftop concert. McCartney switched to using his 1963 model for the remainder of the album.<ref>"Let It Be" film, Apple Corps.</ref> He switched back to the Rickenbacker for the recording of ''Abbey Road'' and continued to use it with Wings and his solo career. The 1961 bass was stolen from a van in 1972, and was not recovered until 2024.<ref name=ew/>
In 1988, while recording the ''Flowers in the Dirt'' album, a collaboration with Elvis Costello led to a request from Costello for McCartney to bring the 500/1 back from retirement. As of 2024, he is still in possession of the 1963 bass, and regularly uses it for performances.
In September 2023, Nick Wass, a Liverpool native and former Höfner marketing manager and guitar developer, launched the "Lost Bass Project" to recover McCartney's stolen Höfner bass.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.hofner.com/en/paul-s-lost-bass |title=Paul's Lost Bass |work=hofner.com |language=en |access-date=2023-09-24 |archive-date=2023-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924121644/https://www.hofner.com/en/paul-s-lost-bass |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://thelostbass.com/ |title=Searching for the Lost Bass |work=thelostbass.com |language=en |access-date=2023-09-24}}</ref> In February 2024, it was revealed that the bass had finally been recovered.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/C3X9mlPok1t/?igsh=OHYzemdid3hhc3k1 |author=[[Höfner|Hofner Guitars [@hofnerguitars]]] |url-access=registration |title=The Lost Bass is Back Where it Belongs |via=Instagram |date=February 15, 2024 |access-date=February 15, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=February 14, 2024 |title=Statement on Höfner Bass |url=https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/statement-on-hofner-bass |access-date=February 15, 2024 |website=Paul McCartney}}</ref> The Lost Bass Project traced it to the south coast of England when someone who unknowingly possessed the bass in their attic contacted the organization for its recovery.<ref name=ew>{{Cite magazine |last=Stenzel |first=Wesley |date=February 15, 2024 |title=Paul McCartney's long-lost bass recovered with a little help from his fans |url=https://ew.com/paul-mccartneys-long-lost-bass-recovered-8584035 |access-date=February 16, 2024 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly}}</ref> The bass was played onstage for the first time in decades on 19 December 2024, at the end of McCartney's Got Back tour at The O2 Arena in London.<ref name=rs>{{Cite magazine |last=Zemler |first=Emily |date=20 December 2024|title=Watch Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood Join Paul McCartney During Final London Show|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-mccartney-ringo-starr-ronnie-wood-london-show-1235212632/|access-date=20 December 2024|magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> The story of the search for the bass is told in the 2026 documentary ''McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass''.
==Images== <gallery> McCartneyO2101224 p2 (101 of 191) (54225061671).jpg|Paul McCartney with his first (1961) Höfner bass in 2024. Beatles ad 1965 just the beatles crop.jpg|Paul McCartney (second from the right) with his second (1963) Höfner bass in 1965. Paul McCartney black and white 2010.jpg|Paul McCartney with his second (1963) Höfner bass in 2010. He removed the pickguard during The Beatles' 1966 US tour.{{efn|To be more precise, it was removed in between the concerts at the DC Stadium in Washington D.C. on August 15, 1966<ref>{{cite web|url=https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph084-b001-f022-sl002-i011| title=Paul McCartney and John Lennon (the Beatles) in concert at D.C. Stadium, August 15, 1966|author=Rowland Scherman|date=August 15, 1966|website=Credo|access-date=February 17, 2024}}</ref> and the one at the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia on the following day.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bobbonis.com/product/paul-mccartney-jfk-stadium-philadelphia-pa-august-16-1966-1| title=PAUL MCCARTNEY, JFK STADIUM, PHILADELPHIA, PA, AUGUST 16, 1966|author=Bob Bonis|date=August 16, 1966|website=Bob Bonis Archive|access-date=February 17, 2024}}</ref>}} Hofner 500-1 Anniversary('61CavernBass)RH.jpg|Höfner 500/1 50th Anniversary RH (reissue)<br /> In their original run, the 500/1 used this stacked pickup configuration prior to 1962. H500@1-62-0 1.jpg|The Höfner H500/1-62 "Mersey" model. (reissue) <br /> From 1962 onwards, the 500/1 featured a widely separated pickup configuration. Hofner 500-1V62 WorldHistory RH.jpg|Höfner 500/1 Vintage '62 World History RH Paul hoefner bass.jpg|A Höfner bass on display at the Beatles-Museum Biebelnheim Höfner 500-1 leaning to the couch - Day 363 of Project 365 - 2013-12-29 Party On! (by Pete).jpg|Höfner 500-1 (2013) </gallery>
==Variations== The following variations are or were sold by Höfner:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hofner-guitars.com/electric-basses/violin-bass.html |title=Hofner Violin Bass |access-date=June 10, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606105002/http://www.hofner-guitars.com/electric-basses/violin-bass.html |archive-date=June 6, 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Hofner Basses 2924 page 1">{{cite web |title=Hofner: Product Category: Basses: The Violin Bass (page 1) |url=https://www.hofner.com/en/shop/category/4-475 |website=Hofner |access-date=February 27, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Hofner Basses 2924 page 2">{{cite web |title=Hofner: Product Category: Basses: The Violin Bass (page 2) |url=https://www.hofner.com/en/shop/category/4-475/page/2 |website=Hofner |access-date=February 27, 2024}}</ref> * 500/1 Vintage '58 re-issue * 500/1 Vintage '59 re-issue * 500/1 Cavern Bass (no longer available from Höfner)<ref name=autogenerated1 /> * 500/1 Vintage '61 Cavern Bass (2011 model - based on Paul McCartney's original specs) [as of 2024, known as the "'Vintage' '61"] ** as of 2024, a vintage-style and -color model is also made based on Paul McCartney's '63 500/1 * 500/1 Vintage '62 "Mersey" [as of 2024, known as the "'Mersey' '62"] * 500/1 Vintage '62 50th Anniversary Edition (2014) of "The Ed Sullivan Show". Limited Edition of 64 only. * 500/1 Vintage '63 (no longer in production) * 500/1 Vintage '64 (replaced '63) * 500/1 125th Anniversary 'Black Violin Bass' * 5000/1 Deluxe Bass (no longer in production) * 500/1 KV 60th Anniversary model with graphics designed by Klaus Voormann ** as of 2024, renamed the "Violin Bass '63 - 60th Anniversary Edition II" * H500/1-CT Contemporary Series (''"Designed in Germany"'' printed on back of head. ''"Made in China"'' on sticker on back of head.) * Icon series B-Bass, made in China (name changed to Ignition for legal reasons in 2010) ** Höfner produced limited runs of the Icon B Bass in 5 custom color schemes. Only 150 of each color were manufactured and made available for sale in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/hofner/hofner_guitar/iconltd.html |title=North Coast Music: Hofner Limited Edsition Icon Basses |access-date=February 12, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223194617/http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/hofner/hofner_guitar/iconltd.html |archive-date=February 23, 2009 }}</ref> ** In 2008, the Icon B Bass was also issued in a limited edition "Dark Burst" finish, of which 88 were produced. * HI series B-Bass (Ignition), made in Indonesia, from 2010. A cheaper budget option. ** As of 2024, it is available in various colors and versions, including the Cavern version (based on Paul McCartney's '61 Hofner 500/1) and one version in two colors (sunburst and black; based on McCartney's '63 Hofner 500/1) * Violin Bass CT * Violin Bass Artist (available in sunburst and black; based on McCartney's '63 Hofner 500/1) * Violin Bass - Green Line * Violin Bass Cavern '61 * Violin Bass '62 * Violin Bass Rooftop '69 (based on the condition of McCartney's '63 Hofner 500/1 at The Beatles' rooftop concert in 1969)
==Imitators== Due to the cost of the official Höfner bass, several guitar companies offer more affordable versions of the "violin bass". These include Greco, Epiphone, Tokai, El Dégas, Jay Turser, Duesenberg, Rogue, Douglas, Harley Benton and Eko.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://home.netcom.com/~jmichae1/violin.html |title=Violin Style Bass Guitars<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2023-10-03 |archive-date=2016-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010220031/http://home.netcom.com/~jmichae1/violin.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Carl Wilson and Al Jardine of The Beach Boys occasionally played a Höfner imitation bass during the late 1960s, most notably at the 1967 concerts in Honolulu, Hawaii, that produced the long-unreleased live album Lei'd in Hawaii.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stebbins|first=Jon|author-link=Jon Stebbins|title=The Beach Boys FAQ: All That's Left to Know About America's Band|date=2011|isbn=9781458429148|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8T3ivyKmSQwC|publisher=Backbeat Books|page=289}}</ref>
==Höfner 500/1 players== * Paul McCartney * Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof * Angel Deradoorian * Murray Cook of The Wiggles * Kevin Parker of Tame Impala frequently uses a Höfner to create his songs. * Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith played a Höfner on the recording sessions for ''Just Push Play'', and on the recording of "What It Takes". * Robbie Shakespeare<ref name="UnitedReggae_20120626">{{cite news|title=Interview: Robbie Shakespeare|url=https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1024/062612/interview-robbie-shakespeare|newspaper=United Reggae: Online Reggae Magazine|last=Taylor|first=Angus|access-date=27 March 2017|date=26 June 2012}}</ref> * Chris Wood of Medeski Martin and Wood and The Wood Brothers * Yen Chih-Lin of Power Station * Zach Dawes of The Last Shadow Puppets * Charly Garcia in Random * Doug Fieger of The Knack and Sky owned a Höfner. * Göran Lagerberg of Tages<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Göran Lagerberg|url=http://www.fuzz.se/artikel/goran-lagerberg|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803133347/http://www.fuzz.se/artikel/goran-lagerberg|archive-date=2021-08-03|access-date=2021-09-14|website=www.fuzz.se}}</ref> * Jon Anderson on Olias of Sunhillow<ref>{{Citation|title=Preface to the Expanded Edition|date=2021-01-12|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18zhdm1.3|work=Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides' Bacchae|pages=ix–xii|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctv18zhdm1.3 |s2cid=242671661 |access-date=2022-01-18|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * Awan Garnida of Sore Ze Band
==In popular culture== The Höfner 500/1 appeared in ''Guitar Hero II''. A replica of the Höfner bass used by McCartney (albeit right-handed) is used as the basis for a guitar controller included with the special edition bundle of the video game ''The Beatles: Rock Band''.
==See also== * List of the Beatles' instruments
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Footnotes== {{notelist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Höfner 500/1|Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitars}} * [https://thelostbass.com/ The Lost Bass] the search for Paul McCartney's original Höfner * [https://www.hofner.com/violin_bass_history Official Höfner website: ''A Short History of the Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221217145149/https://www.hofner.com/violin_bass_history |date=2022-12-17 }} * [http://www.thecanteen.com/fabguitars.html Detailed information on guitars used by The Beatles]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofner 500 1}} Category:Höfner electric bass guitars