An English mother of two has been given a six-figure reward as a thank-you for reuniting Paul McCartney with his favorite Höfner bass guitar.
Cathy Guest found McCartney’s Höfner 500/1 bass guitar, worth an estimated £10m (approx $12.6m) in her attic earlier this year.
Her late husband had become one of a line of people to have owned the instrument since its theft in 1972.
The Höfner was hailed as “the most important bass guitar in history” thanks to its role in crafting The Beatles’ formative hits, with its discovery first reported in February.
It featured on early singles including Love Me Do and She Loves You but was stolen from a van in Notting Hill, London in 1972.
It has since been revealed that its thief sold it to a pub landlord for a meager fee of “not much money plus a few free pints.” Guest’s late husband later inherited the instrument from his brother, leading to Cathy’s discovery of the bass.
After she Googled the instrument for more information, she discovered it belonged to the legendary Liverpudlian, who later reportedly handed a six-figure reward to Guest for the miraculous find.
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(Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer / Getty Images)
Last year, Höfner bass expert and Guitar World contributor Nick Wass teamed up with two investigative journalists to set up The Lost Bass Project.
Dedicated to discovering the whereabouts of McCartney’s beloved bass, at the time, Wass had said: “To this day it remains a mystery. There have been rumors over the years, but this is all they amount to – just rumors.”
He added that its last known whereabouts was on January 21, 1969, just days before the band’s rooftop show at the Apple HQ on Saville Row, London. Few would have expected its discovery to have arisen in such humble circumstances.
McCartney had bought the violin bass for £30 while in Hamburg in 1961, while the band were in the midst of a three-month residency at the city’s Top Ten Club.
As previously detailed by Bass Player, the Höfner was bought from the city’s prestigious Steinway Musikhaus. The instrument’s shape appealed to McCartney as, being left-handed, he could play it upside down and not look strange doing so.
Fast forward to 2024, and the publicity of The Lost Bass Project helped Guest connect the dots between the attic-dwelling bass and its illustrious former owner.
Posting on the project’s website, Wass said that: “Guest contacted Paul McCartney’s company and then returned the bass to them. The search was over – Paul had his stolen bass back at last!”
(Image credit: Guncotton Guitars)
Paul McCartney’s estate and Guest have since agreed on the undisclosed reward fee, with Guest saying that her lifestyle “won’t be changing” as a result.
“They have now agreed a deal and the family have been given a very significant thank-you fee,” The Sun reports. “Sir Paul has also expressed his gratitude to Cathy and the family.”
It’s not the first guitar reunion story of 2024, however: A 1981 Les Paul Custom was returned to its rightful owner 27 years after its disappearance in February.
Guitar World hopes this story isn’t the last of its kind this year.
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