Baby Steps

To this day, one of Paul McCartney's trademarks is his violin-shaped Hofner bass guitar. He began playing the instrument when Stuart Sutcliffe quit the Beatles to attend art college, leaving an opening for a bass player. George remembered, “At that point, I said, ‘We're not going to get a fifth person in the band. One of us three is going to be the bass player, and it's not going to be me,’ and Paul didn't seem to mind the idea.’’ Paul had spotted a bass player in another Hamburg group using the Hofner bass, and he liked it so much he went out and bought one for himself. He used it on most of the Beatles’ recordings, and it was always present in their live shows.