LEGENDARY Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has finally been reunited with his beloved original Höfner bass guitar decades after it went missing.
Sir Paul, who owns a farm outside Peasmarsh near Rye, said his guitar went missing in 1972.
He bought the instrument in Germany when the Beatles embarked on their career in Hamburg.
It is believed he last played it during the recording sessions for the album Let It Be.
The original left-handed guitar was returned to Sir Paul following a worldwide appeal last year by the Loss Bass Project.
The former Beatle has expressed he is delighted to have the iconic instrument back in his possession.
The rediscovery of the guitar has been confirmed on Sir Paul’s website. It wrote: “Following the launch of last year’s Lost Bass project, Paul’s 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar, which was stolen in 1972, has been returned.
“The guitar has been authenticated by Höfner and Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”
The Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr split in 1970 having enjoyed one of the most successful recording careers of all time with their records still selling millions to this day.
The Loss Bass Project has said they are extremely proud to be part of this mission to help Sir Paul locate his guitar.
The project started in 2018, and even though the team had received many doubts about the likelihood of finding the guitar, they persevered and their efforts have finally paid off.
They wrote on their website: “It has been a dream since 2018 that it could be done. Despite many telling us that it was lost forever or destroyed, we persisted until it was back where it belonged.
“We want to thank everyone who helped with the search, all those who sent us leads and ideas and many who just wanted to lend their support to us.
“Thank you all so very much. Very much indeed! We did it!”
They reported the guitar is still in its original case. Initially the team had no leads until last year following a major media coverage.
They received more than 100 possible leads and more than 600 loyal Beatle fans wanted to join the mission.
Loss Bass Project also wrote on their website: “We received information about the actual theft, that it had been stolen from the back of a 3 ton van during the night of 10th October 1972, in the Notting Hill area of London. This was the breakthrough we needed.
“We quickly realised that this information corresponded exactly with a story we had received in an email about the bass being stolen. With some detective work we were able to discover exactly who had stolen the bass.
“Further to this we gained information about what the thief did with the bass, they sold it to Ronald Guest the landlord of the Admiral Blake pub in Ladbroke Grove, London.”
Based on the information the Lost Bass Project team believed the guitar stayed with the same family. Following this the team wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph and their campaign gained greater attention.
They reported a person, who lives in Hastings, contacted Sir Paul’s team and returned the bass guitar to him.
