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

English is the language of this message board. Lighten up, Francis.

 

Fully hollow

 

Yes, I understand that. The point was that Casino was by no means a modest guitar, price wise.
Casino is not semi-hollow body, no center block inside.

Ondra

 

Man, imagine what a 1965 Fender Strat or Tele is worth now! I had a '68 Tele and matching bass then I stupidly sold in the mid-80's. BIG mistake. Oh well, live and learn. I had no idea Casinos were that costly back then. I always thought they were significantly less expensive than Fenders. thanks for info! Ron

 

Couldn't Brian have bought them through NEMS and get them for wholesale?

 

True, but unfortunately Höfner is a German company.

 

Yes, aside from cost, this is the most convincing explanation I've always heard. It makes sense since the shape is the same regardless of which way it's facing. However, I've never seen a photo of Paul playing a right-handed Hofner turned around. They are always legit left-handed models. So it may have been a matter of availability too, that this is a model that came left-handed at the time?

 

He could be using either the Ric or the Hofner. I think Paul's style was formed around the Hofner, so even when he used his Ric, he went for that warm, woody tone. Even the pics of Paul during the Abbey Road sessions using his Ric, he's got those black LaBella flat wounds on it to get that warmer tone.

 

According to the stories told in Andy Babiuk's "Beatles Gear," Paul probably saw a right handed 500/1 and thought a lefty model would probably work. Hofner being a German company and Paul ordering his bass in Hamburg, I bet a simple phone call was made to see if a lefty was possible. Instrument sales were a premium in the early 60's, so I bet Hofner was motivated to make it happen. That model was certainly much easier to tool up for a lefty than say a PBass or the Hofner model Stu Sutcliffe used.

 

Possibly, but in those early days of the rock n roll business, artist endorsements and artist relations with guitar manufacturers basically didn't exist, especially for a band from Liverpool. It wasn't until Beatlemania exploded did instrument manufacturers attempt to get their gear in the hands of the boys. An installment plan was probably the best "deal" they were going to get.

Ironically, they bought their Strats full price when Don Randall was trying like hell to get in contact with them.

 

But then again it was fortunate for them to be a German company as that's why Paul bought one of their basses. When he was in Germany. And then we would not have had this thread.

 

I found an article with George talking about how he missed an opportunity to buy a Fender Stratocaster in Germany because someone else beat him to it. Instead he bought the Gretsch Duo Jet when he came back to Liverpool. This anecdote from George may put it all into perspective regarding the Beatles and the humble guitars they owned at the time:

"...Then we started to make money and I saved up 75 pounds and I saw an ad in the paper in Liverpool, and there was a guy selling his guitar. I bought it; it was a Gretsch Duo Jet - which is now on my new album cover (Cloud Nine). It was a sailor who bought it in America and brought it back. It was like my first real American guitar, and I'll tell you, it was second-hand, but I polished that thing; I was so proud to own that. That was the reason I think when we went to the States to play Ed Sullivan Show, Gretsch gave me a Gretsch that I used on the show. I didn't realize it at the time - because if I had, I'd have 20 Gretsches right now, with square ones, round ones, fur ones, and all them like Bo Diddley -- but I read somewhere that after The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan Show that Gretsch sold 20,000 guitars a week, or something like that. I mean, we could have had shares in Fender, Vox, Getsch, and everything, but we didn't know - we were stupid." - Excerpt from Guitar Player Magazine.

 

There's no umlaut on Paul's headstock.

 

yep, you're right. I specifically meant their iconic electrics, but yeah, forgot about those.

 

Ha! Greetings from America.

 

Yeah, but in 69/70 or whatever John was still playing that, and he could have had absolutely whatever. George's 57 Les Paul was a far fancier guitar, not to mention the solid rosewood Tele. Even in the 70s John played a plain, flat top Les Paul (junior?) - essentially a student guitar. I'd hazard to guess he shied away from fancy guitars after the Ric.

 

If you ever wondered how they are made

 

I would be surprised if The Beatles were paying anything for most of their guitars after 1963. Most guitar companies would have killed to have The Beatles play their instruments.

 

Hence the gifts from Rickenbacker that yielded George's 360/12, John's new 325 and eventually a 4001 bass for Paul. Fender also gifted them some instruments around 1968. Paul also received his second Hofner by the company itself in November or December of 1963.

 

Casino as already mentioned (edit)is actually fully hollow as opposed to its Gibson 335 "cousin" with a solid block in the middle.
I have a lefty Casino and a Epi Dot, which is the 335 copy.

 

I play a lefty Hofner (sorry can't make the dots with my keyboard) and love the tone. I sold a lefty Fender Precision with a Jazz neck because besides being heavy, the difference between a long neck and a small scale can make you have to "think" a little, and that cause small mistakes when laying live. I bought a cheaper Mikro Ibanez for some of the heavier songs we do. It basically has a guitar neck.

 

I also thought that the Epiphone Casinos were gifted to the group too, resulting in John, George, and Paul each receiving one.

I am also aware of another 12 string Rickenbacker gifted to George from a local music store during his August 1965 visit to Minneapolis. Film footage of this event does circulate, as it came at the end of their press conference. He ended up using this guitar on "If I Needed Someone."

 

I taught him how to play Bass!

 

Paul was the first to acquire a Casino in 1964.
Model Es-230TD.
John and George acquired theirs later in 1966.

 

I think he has just the one Rik