Just like Lennon’s Rickenbacker, the viola bass is Paul McCartney’s instrument par excellence, so much that he still plays it. And yet it has to be said that he chose it for several reasons, not all of whom concerning music.

Paul McCartney wasn’t a bass player at the beginning. When the Beatles played in Hamburg during 1960-61, he was one of the three guitarists of the band (with John and George), and bass player was Stu Sutcliffe. Stu, a young and promising painter, had joined the band more for being one of Lennon’s greatest friends than for his musical skills. Bass sound, anyway, was not considered much at that time and a band would be satisfied with someone playing just tonic notes with enough rhythm. Stu soon got bored of this and didn’t join all performances; at the end, when he decided to marry Astrid Kirckherr, a german girl, and stay in Hamburg, he definitively was out of the band.

Paul McCartney had played bass guitar in Hamburg when Stu didn’t join; when they came back to Liverpool he became the one and only bass player; but he needed to buy a new instrument, since Stu’s Rosetti bass was more than broken. But Paul didn’t have much money: even before, when he played guitar, he was forced to use some instruments of second choice. So he chose one of the cheapest basses he found: a Hofner 500/1 with short neck and a strange viola shape.

Asked in an interview during the 60s, he said that choice had been just for lack of money: “It’s just that it’s very cheap – he said – and I’m a bit mean, you know”. Talking more seriously, he later explained it was a matter of shape too: he’s left-handed and this bass is symmetrical; so it would look nice even if played upside down. It wasn’t that easy at that time to find instruments for left-handed (think about Jimi Hendrix!).

The fame of the Beatles made this strange instrument, too, well known over the world. So Hofner company didn’t lose such a business chance and in 1964 gave McCartney a new model, similar in the shape but with some little technical differences (pickup position, pickguard etc.). Paul went on using this new one as the main bass guitar, and the old one as backup. Some years later – as they say – the latter was stolen.

But in 1966 he began being unsutisfied with Hofner sound. At that time he was trying to obtain a more powerful and clear bass sound on records, so to support better the new style he was improving: the sound of their albums of psychedelic period (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour). With EMI engineers he tried some new ways of using microphones and mixing; but it took to switch to another bass guitar, too: Rickenbacker 4001 S-LH.

McCartney anyway didn’t leave his Hofner at all: he played it sometimes during his last years with the Beatles and most of all during the Get Back/Let it Be sessions. But as soloist he preferred most of the time Rickenbacker models.

Paul not only ownes this Hofner still, but he plays it very often, live too. Someone says this is happened cause of Elvis Costello, which wrote with Paul some albums between 80s and 90s. Being asked if he would join him to produce what would be released as “Flowers in the Dirt”, he answered he would only if Paul had played his old Hofner viola bass. And that’s it.

Nowadays Hofner company still produces three versions of this guitar: the second and the third are replicas of Paul’s models. They’re called 500/1 Vintage ‘59, 500/1 Vintage ‘62 e 500/1 Vintage ‘63 and you can find more informations here. They’re sold at about 1200/2000 euros. Hofner offers also a model called Violin Bass from its CT series, not a reissue but a modern bass with a vintage shape, for 5/600 euros.

There’s also a replica by Epiphone, not exactly the same but very similar, called simply Viola Bass: you can have it for 250/350 euros.
At least you can find many other replicas, cheaper and surely not as good as the ones before.
A vintage model from the 60s, instead, could be yours if you can afford about 1500/2000 euros.