Paul McCartney signed 1965 Hofner 500/1 "Violin" bass guitar. ...

Description

Paul McCartney signed 1965 Hofner 500/1 "Violin" bass guitar. ear mint and original 1965/1966 Hofner 500/1 bass weighs just 4.50 lbs. and has a just over two-inch thick, eleven-inch wide, violin-shaped full hollow-body. Arched one-piece spruce top, arched one-piece laminated "flamed" maple back and triple-bound laminated maple sides. Two-piece flamed maple neck (similar to the bass that McCartney plays today) with a nut width of just over 1.56 inches and a comfortable medium-thick profile. Single-layer pearloid heel-cap with added strap button. Rosewood fretboard with a five-piece nut, a "zero" fret and twenty-one original "medium-thin" frets and mother-of-pearl dot position markers. Replaced, period-correct individual open-back tuners with scalloped metal buttons. Black laminated headstock face with raised Hofner script peghead logo in white plastic with gold face. Two Höfner Type 511 "Super" staple single-coil pickups with outputs of 4.36k and 4.51k. (2) Rotary volume controls and (3) two-way slider switches for "Rhythm/Solo", "Bass" and "Treble." Hofner "teacup" control knobs with ribbed sides and metal tops, all on a thin rectangular mother-of-pearl panel with black edging. "Floating" four-saddle ebony bridge with ebony base with four friction-fit moveable saddles. Hofner specific nickel trapeze-style tailpiece. This guitar is a Spanish model from ca. 1965/66 with "Fabrica en Espana A-20-01536" stamped in white on the back of the body. Inside the control panel, on the back of the body, written in black ink is "Jose Luis Precioso 50.827646." Precioso, a Spanish bass player, met Paul and Linda McCartney in Barcelona, Spain October 26, 1993 while McCartney was on his New World Tour when he boldly signed this bass on the top in black marker pen, "Paul McCartney". Included with the guitar are (2) photographs of Jose Luis Precioso with Paul and Linda McCartney and the guitar itself after having been signed by McCartney, plus a letter of provenance from Precioso dated 3/5/2015. Also included is a Hofner 500/1 bass control panel which may have been original to this bass. In 1961, Paul McCartney bought his first Hofner bass in a shop in Hamburg and used it on many of the Beatles' most famous songs. Paul still plays his "Beatle Bass" live on stage today and the model is inextricably tied to McCartney and The Beatles.

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