Why did Paul choose the Höfner violin bass in the early Beatle days?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RickH, Feb 14, 2017.

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  1. 12stringbassist

    12stringbassist Location: Irrelevance.

    Location:
    Manchester UK
    This Jazz bass has turned up in a number of photos over the years.

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    American keyboards don't have an easily accessible umlaut.
     
  3. Gila

    Gila Forum Resident

    Actually it does, in a way, because all the rooftop concert his Hofner is out of tune, with itself. Listen to intro of I've Got a Feeling (bass track separately if you can), where he plays open A string and 7th fret of D (which is higher A) together, it sounds wobbly because those two stings aren't exactly in tune with each other. Same thing in Get Back.

    But yes of course, Hofner is tough to intonate, especially in those days I guess. Besides, there's much less tension on strings, so it's easy to make a note go sharp if you press the string too hard when you are fretting it, and on rooftop gig he was getting loose.

    As for that tone, it was also affected by him using black nylon tapewound strings at that time. Actually, I Want You/She's So Heavy has the same tone.

    Yeah, saw that one before, but never ever saw that fretless Ric or Darkstar. Interesting. I also know he used Yamaha (BB-something) and Wal 5-string as well, also funny how he said that "when Free As a Bird during the guitar solo goes to low C, that's my Wal moment", when there's plenty of 5-string on Flowers in the Dirt album (Figure of Eight, How Many People, Distractions) - was that also Wal 5-string or something else?

    Edit: Distractions video has his Wal 5-string.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2017
  4. Werner Berghofer

    Werner Berghofer Forum Resident

    I know, but I don’t think this is a valid reason to unauthorized change an original proper name. For example German keyboards don’t have characters required to type names like Buñuel or Françoise, but writing names in their correct spelling should be considered appropiate and respectful. There are more languages in the world than just English, and “ñ”, “ç”, “ä”, “ö”, “ü” or “ß” are part of the Latin character set.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2017
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  5. dudley07726

    dudley07726 Forum Resident

    Location:
    FLA
    He had the Hofner worked on in the 80's at Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island NY. He said they put it in tune fully for the first time in its life.
     
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  6. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    G-ddamn, I want that bass! I don't care if it's left handed, I'll do what McCartney did and restring it upside down!
     
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  7. Gila

    Gila Forum Resident

    Yep. But even on the earlier albums it's mostly in tune, or should I say "more" in tune than on Rooftop.
    Since those days these violin basses, made by Hofner or not, got better and better of course.
    I have some cheap "JET" copy of it (made in South Korea, apparently), it took a bit of effort but it stays in tune and the intonation is all right.
     
  8. SammyJoe

    SammyJoe Up The Irons!

    Location:
    Finland
    I think the Hofner has always looked really cool, for me atleast.
    That's just my little opinion on the matter.
     
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  9. perplexed

    perplexed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast NJ, USA
    Yes the short scale helps
     
  10. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    It IS valid. I don't even know how to access the umlaut or any other vowel modifier on a US-based keyboard. Regardless, typing a word without an umlaut (sound alteration) is perfectly acceptable, especially in a forum setting. For those who don't know, an umlaut itself is not a unique letter, it's indicates a sound change where a vowel is modified more closely to the vowel in the next syllable. Not including a tilde (i.e Buñuel) or cedilla (i.e Françoise) is not in itself disrespectful, it is a by-product of typing non-native words. The letters themselves aren't changed; however, this can lead to mis-pronouncing such words by non-native speakers. If one is writing a book, or a publishing an article, using appropriate diacritics would be correct. Here, not so much. Ron
     
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  11. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    PS Paul chose the Hofner because it was inexpensive, in-stock, light-weight and uniform in appearance. You think Paul would spend 100 pounds on an instrument when he could spend 35? Nope. Even when they became rich and famous he chose to play a modest Casino than a Telecaster or other such famous guitar. And does so to this very day.
     
  12. SixOClockBoos

    SixOClockBoos The Man On The Flaming Pie

    That's amazing! I had no idea that Paul had multiple 4001's.
     
  13. somnar

    somnar Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC & Amsterdam
    McCartney had a gift for getting imperfectly setup instruments to play in tune. The thing that always amazes me is when you see photos of him from the 60s playing re-strung right-handed guitars: the bridges are almost never adjusted, so he's battling that, which is no small thing. So getting the Hofner to play in-tune in the studio wouldn't have been that difficult for him as he no doubt knew how to play around the issue.
     
  14. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    I would imagine that playing on a London rooftop in January probably didn't help anyone's intonation!
     
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  15. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    And nowadays even the violin bass itself is more expensive.
     
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  16. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    Most people outside german speaking countries don't have computer keyboards with 'umlauts' on it.
    [Edit:] Sorry, I just reached page 2 and it was discussed already.^^
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2017
  17. mando_dan

    mando_dan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Beverly, MA
    Is H.o.fner acceptable?
     
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  18. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    No one's making an unauthorized change to an original proper name. It's just that most people are not going to go out of their way to complete the necessary keystrokes to create these special characters. I can't imagine what a hassle it would be to do it on a personal device, which is how many people post here. Anyway. this is a message board for casual conversation and not a newspaper or scholarly journal or professional publication.
     
  19. videoman

    videoman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lake Tahoe, NV
    No. I still have it. ;)
     
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  20. hoggydoggy

    hoggydoggy Forum Resident

    Where's Stephen Stills with his opinion when you need it...? ;)
     
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  21. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    They got a pair of Gibson acoustics fairly early on
    [​IMG]
     
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  22. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I think George and John bought those Gibsons on a lay-away plan (co-signed by Brian Epstein, just in case), and they were still paying them off into 1964!!
     
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  23. Onder

    Onder Senior Member

    According to Andy Babiuk's book Beatles Gear, Paul's Casino was £ 172,20 back then, while John's and George's strats in custom colour were £ 180 each, so the cost was more or less the same.

    Ondra
     
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  24. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    The Casino is a semi-hollow body guitar, which apples to apples in terms of quality are more expensive than solid bodied guitars.
     
  25. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Yeah the Epiphone was not a cheapo guitar back then. Epiphone's reputation as kind of a budget Gibson is something that came later.
     
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