Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass Guitar - Reissues

The Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar '61 Reissue

Paul used his original ‘61 model (which he had bought in Hamburg) up until 1963. He used it on July 1st 1963 at EMI Studios. The so-called "’61 Cavern Bass” was released in 1994 as a “limited edition” copy of the 1961 500/1.

The Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar '62 Reissue

It's a modern “Reissue” of the bass (an original ’63 Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar) that Paul McCartney still plays today. My “Vintage ‘62 Reissue” was “finished” in the Höfner factory, on 21st October 2003. It is built to the ’62 specifications. So, this is a modern guitar. It has an unbound 2-piece neck, 2-on-a-strip machine head gears, short "neck pickup" surround, and is made of German maple back and sides with a select spruce top.

The “Vintage ‘62 Reissue” pedigree descends from the MusicGround 20/40 (for 20 years of MusicGround and 40 years of Hofner), which appeared in 1996. My “Vintage ‘62 Reissue” is so named because they wanted to name it after McCartney’s ‘63 Original that was built to ’62 specifications, but the “’63 Reissue” name had already been applied several years earlier to the ’63 Reissues built to the ’63 specifications, with many being sold as "40th Anniversary" Editions. Confusing huh ?

The Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar '63 Reissue

Strangely, the ’63 Reissues, first released in 1996, are not built to the specifications of McCartney’s ’63 Original; they are built to another version built in 1963, to ’63 specifications. There were at least five different versions of the 500/1 bass built in 1963 – one of them, the bass owned by McCartney which he still plays today, is built to ’62 specifications.

The '63 Reissue” is built to ’63 specifications, an inferior guitar with poly finish, 3 piece neck and individual tuners, matching tall surrounds on the pickups, and has African anigree (“a maple type wood”) back and sides with a spruce top instead of the German Maple used on the “Vintage ‘62 Reissues, and original 60's Hofners. The ‘63 Reissues cost less but now have the same nitro based finish. Many ’63 originals were made, but only a few like McCartney’s; two were “lefties”; he has one of them.

Paul McCartneys's '63 Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar

McCartney may have first used his new ‘63 model on 16th July 1963 at the Paris Studio however, for other reasons, this is unlikely as it is reported that McCartney's ’63 500/1 pot code is 283, meaning it was built by Höfner in the 28th week of 1963, perhaps therefore in late July 1963.

Variations from his first bass include the neck (two-piece rather than three-piece); machine heads (two-on-a-strip open-back as opposed to single open-back "rugby ball" tuners); pickups ("staple-top" rather than "diamond logo," with one of the two moved nearer the bridge); headstock logo (horizontal script rather than vertical lettering); body (round back rather than flat), and fretboard dot inlay (to the 21st fret rather than the 19th).

He certainly had it on display for the Ready Steady Go rehearsals on October 4th 1963. At this session, John Lennon had his newly repaired '58 Rickenbacker 325, Ringo was on his Ludwigs and George was photographed for the first time with his new Rickenbacker 425.

McCartney has leveraged the iconic image of the instrument, using it in concert as well as videos, promotional photos, and album covers. "It's like Chaplin's cane," McCartney has said. "People just expect to see it." Somewhere along the line, McCartney also removed the pickguards from his Höfners and has used the instruments without pickguards since that time. He also had the 1963 500/1 reconditioned by Mandolin Brothers, a guitar shop in Staten Island, New York, which brought the bass back into reliable tune.

So the reissue of McCartney’s bass that had been built in 1963 to ’62 specifications became the “Vintage ‘62 Reissue”. As most people did not know that McCartney’s bass was in fact a 1963 bass built to ’62 specifications, this did not, and does not, seem to matter. The only difference between Paul's bass and a "real" 1962 500/1 is the lack of a small "Hofner" body logo. In 1962, there was a body logo - in 1963 there wasn't.

The Höfner 500/1 Bass Guitar '61 Reissue

The so-called "’61 Cavern Bass” was released in 1994 as a “limited edition” copy of the 1961 500/1.