Hofner 500/1 Violin Bass LEFTY 1975 - Sunburst

Approximately 1975  HOFNER VIOLIN BASS 500/1 LEFTY Sunburst, Gold Logo, bar-blade(shark-fin) pick-ups, Rare ! (Code LH34)

Excellent Condions, all Original without pickguard, perfect neck and frets, low action and strong Beatles Sound, comes in Original Case.

In 1961 Stuart Sutcliffe, the Beatles' first bass player, left the group for good and Paul, already a rhythm guitarist, took on this new role after John and George refused. Shortly before the second trip to Hamburg (or Hamburg itself, according to other sources) Paul bought his new violin-shaped bass. It is a hollowbody instrument, brown finish, with a short scale, with two pickups, one near the fingerboard and the other in a central position, between the bridge and the fingerboard itself.

In 1963 Paul bought a new version of the 500/1 that was basically the same as the previous one but with the central pickup moved to the bridge. Finally in the spring of 1964 Selmer, the distributor of Hofner in England, gave McCartney another model with gold parts. The Hofner 500/1 was Paul's main bass from 1961 to 1965, and later he alternated it with the Rickenbacker bass. This particular instrument, along with the 325 and George's two first Gretschs, was one of the symbols of the Beatles' look during the turbulent and exciting years of Beatlemania.