Bajos Hofner

In 1961, the Beatles' original bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe who had used a Höfner 500/5 bass (similar to the later 'President'), left the band to resume his art studies. The Beatles were without a bass player, and none of them wanted to start playing one, but the job fell on Paul McCartney (who had been playing rhythm guitar and piano) over George Harrison (their settled lead guitarist) and John Lennon (who had just bought a new Rickenbacker 325 guitar and refused to switch). In the British vernacular of the time, McCartney referred to it as being "lumbered" ("stuck") with the job. Stuart Sutcliffe initially lent his Höfner 500/5 bass to Paul McCartney. McCartney had seen another guitarist in Hamburg using a violin shaped bass, and when he saw one in the window of a Hamburg music store, he investigated it. Because of the instrument's symmetricality, McCartney could play left-handed without the bass "looking daft" as he put it.
It was also inexpensive (about £30, or $125 at that time), lightweight, and easy to play melodic bass lines on, yet had a deep, warm tone. McCartney bought the bass outright, and used it through the early Beatles years. In 1963, McCartney received a second 500/1, which can be told apart from his first by the different pick-up positions, directly from Selmer, Höfner's UK distributor. McCartney relegated his original 500/1 to backup duties. His original 500/1 did see one more "public" performance in the video for "Revolution," the bass having been repaired after years of touring and abuse.

Though McCartney retired his second Höfner in favour of a Rickenbacker Model 4001S around 1965 (employing it one last time minus pickguard in 1969, for the famous Apple headquarters rooftop session and the Get Back sessions), the little bass remained famous. [2]

It is ironic that McCartney bought his because it was the cheapest decent-sounding, symmetrically-shaped bass he could find, whereas today, they usually sell for between $1600 and $2000 (it must be noted, however, that the instrument's modern incarnation is much improved over the early 1960's versions).