Höfner Renames “Beatle Bass” Reissue Line of Basses
Höfner has announced that their line of 500/1 Violin “Beatle Basses” are getting new names to more accurately represent their time. The construction and fittings will remain unchanged.
“Due to the sequence that re-issue models were released in, more than 10 years ago, the [Paul] McCartney spec bass became the Vintage ’62 Re-issue despite the fact that his bass was built around August 1963,” the company wrote in a statement. “The models will no longer have a year to identify them, these are replaced by names more evocative of the actual time they represent.”
As such, the Vintage ’61 Re-issue is now called the 500/1 “Cavern”, which is inspired by the bass purchased by McCartney in Hamburg in 1961. The Vintage ’62 Re-issue follows suite and is now the 500/1 “Liverpool”, based on the bass built for McCartney around August 1963. Finally, Vintage ’64 Re-issue is now called the 500/1 Violin Bass and is the standard model.
The part numbers for all three basses will remain the same for this year in order to avoid confusion.
For more information:
Höfner
“in order to avoid confusion” because changing the name of a line of product without changing the product isn’t confusing enough, we will also be keeping the old part number, but only for a year. lol. This must have come from a slow moment at the upper management office’s weekly meeting. Either way, cool basses, Don’t really care what they call ’em.
My dream Hofner reissue would be the mid to late ’50s Violin bass with the black pickup covers, black pickguard, darker finish, muted binding and, the best touch, the ovoid fascia for the volume/tone knobs. No pickup switches like the more famous models, but the ovoid shape harmonized beautifully with the rounded contours of the violin shape. An understated, elegant beauty. Too bad Paul didn’t buy a second hand one of these back in ’61. They’d be everywhere now.