Höfner 500/1

The Höfner 500/1 violin bass (nicknamed the "Beatle bass" or "Cavern bass") is a hollow-bodied bass guitar manufactured by Höfner under several varieties. It was introduced in the mid-1950s and gained celebrity status during the 1960s as one of the primary basses used by Paul McCartney of The Beatles.

History

In 1955, Walter Höfner designed an electrically amplified, semi-acoustic bass guitar. The hollow body made this style of guitar 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 the spring of 1956. A major boost for the bass came in early 1961, when it caught the eye of a young Paul McCartney.

McCartney, who is left-handed, was drawn to the bass 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:

"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."