Höfner, the German instrument company most famous for making Paul McCartney‘s iconic violin bass, has filed for bankruptcy.
According to Guitar.com, “provisional insolvency administration” has been ordered for the company legally known as Karl Höfner GmbH & Co as of a December 10th filing in the Fürth District Court in Bavaria. “An insolvency administrator has been appointed, who will proceed to attempt to rectify debts over the next three months,” per the report.
While little else is publicly known about the filing, according to the report, it likely spells the end for the long-running and prestigious instrument maker.
Upon hearing the news, McCartney released the following statement via his Instagram page: “It is very sad to see Höfner go out of business. They have been making instruments for over 100 years, and I bought my first Höfner bass in the sixties. I have loved it ever since. It’s a wonderful instrument to play: lightweight, and it encourages me to play quite freely. It also offers pleasing variations in tone that I enjoy. So, commiserations to everyone at Höfner, and thank you for all your help over the years – Paul.”
The company was founded by Karl Höfner in 1887, in what was then the Austria-Hungarian town of Schönbach (now Luby in the Czech Republic), where it grew to become a significant supplier of stringed instruments in the area and for export.
After operations were shifted to making military supplies for the German army during World War II, Höfner relocated to West Germany and opened a new factory in Bubenreuth in 1950 with the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia during postwar reconstitution. Facilities were expanded in the decades to follow, an era that saw the creation of what would be Höfner’s most recognizable instrument, the 500/1 bass guitar — aka the violin bass famously used by McCartney with the Beatles and as a solo artist — along with numerous other instruments.
Over the years, Höfner’s ownership has changed hands, and in 2003, it was involved in a rescue buyout before being sold to long-time manager Klaus Schöller and his wife, finance director Ulrike Schrimpff, in December 2004.
Reflecting on his signature bass guitar years ago in an interview with Tony Bacon (as published by Reverb), Macca said: “I knew I was known for the violin shape. It’s like Charlie Chaplin, you know? The little walking cane, the mustache, and a bowler hat, and he’s Charlie. If he comes on with a bandanna and he’s shaved and he’s on a bike, it’s like, Who’s that? So I think there may have been an element of that was what I looked like, kind of a trademark.”
“Also it was very light and I’d always played it live,” he added, “so I might have been playing safe a bit, just using the instrument I’d always used.”
Last year, the Höfner bass that McCartney played on the first two Beatles albums was found and returned to him after it was stolen out of the back of a van 52 years earlier in 1972. A news report can be seen below.
