6 Biggest Beatles Mysteries

When Paul McCartney walked into a music shop in Hamburg in 1961 he had no idea that his frugality would find him an instrument that would eventually be forever associated with his legacy as a musician.

With the visit taking place before the group's commercial success, McCartney said that he chose the Hofner bass not because he particularly liked it but because he could not afford the more expensive brands:

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.

This model would go on to serve McCartney as his primary instrument throughout his early years with the group before Hofner presented him with an updated model in 1963. The instrument would then take a backseat as McCartney's reserve bass, last seen in the Revolution music video in 1968 until it was stolen a year later from Abbey Road studio during the sessions for the Let It Be album.

In the years since a series of conspiracy theories have clouded the possible whereabouts of the famous instrument. Hofner even offered an amnesty on anyone who could provide definite whereabouts or information about the bass.

Despite this, at the time of writing, we are no closer to knowing the true fate of one of the world's most iconic, and unfathomably valuable, guitars.