A stolen Hofner bass guitar belonging to Paul McCartney and used to record The Beatles’ first two albums has been found and returned after 51 years following a global hunt.
The guitar, dubbed the “most iconic lost musical instrument of all time” by The Lost Bass Project, the team behind the search, was used on Beatles songs like the 1963 hits She Loves You and All My Loving.
“It’s the bass that started Beatlemania,” Nick Wass, one of the founders of the search team, told Reuters. “That’s why it’s important — it’s the one that got it going.”
A public appeal by the project last year was shared around the world.
“As a result of the publicity, someone living in a terraced house in Hastings on the south coast of England contacted Paul McCartney’s company and then returned the bass to them,” The Lost Bass Project said. The instrument was returned last year, but it was only announced on Thursday.
Stolen in 1972
The instrument was stolen from a van in the Notting Hill area of London in October 1972, the search team said, citing information received during their investigation.
“The guitar has been authenticated by Hofner and Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved,” a spokesperson on McCartney’s website said.
Wass told Reuters the bass guitar was “somewhat damaged” with a crack in the neck, a bridge that would need replacing and pickups that didn’t work anymore.
“But they can be sorted out, the neck can be repaired and we can make it playable again,” Wass said.
In 2015, a guitar stolen from the late John Lennon in the 1960s sold for $2.41 million at an auction in Beverly Hills, Calif. The person in possession of it said he originally bought it without knowing its connection to Lennon.
The Beatles released a new song Now and Then thanks to artificial intelligence separating John Lennon’s voice from piano playing on a demo track from the 1970s. Experts say it could expand the music industry allowing new songs to be released from deceased artists.