Paul McCartney Sings the Praises of His Legendary Hofner Bass

Paul talks to Guitar Player about the instrument he's most closely associated with:

“I saw a little bit of the Let It Be film of the Beatles on the roof doing ‘Get Back,’” McCartney said, “and I realized that the way I was holding the Höfner was not like you hold a big, heavy thing that weighs you down and you sort of become a part of it.

"The Wals are considerably heavier," he noted. "And the Rickenbacker's are in between.”

There’s no denying the Höfner bass looks practically weightless in McCartney’s hands. While he indicates the “Get Back" performance, his work on "Don't Let Me Down," especially during the song's outro, shows how he could play the bass almost like a lead guitar.

“So when I saw this Let It Be footage, I noticed how easy it looked to play. And because it's so light, you play guitary stuff on it; you play quite fast stuff. It just kind of flows more naturally than if you're on a physically heavy bass. So I got back into it.”