Bass guitar in 1958. 1956 saw the appearance at the German trade fair "Musikmesse Frankfurt" of the distinctive Höfner 500/1 violin bass made using violin construction techniques by Walter Höfner, a second generation violin luthier. The instrument is often known as the "Beatle Bass", due to its endorsement and use by Beatles bassist Paul McCartney. In 1957 Rickenbacker introduced the model 4000 bass, the first bass to feature a neck-through-body design in which the neck is part of the body wood. The Fender and Gibson versions used bolt-on and glued-on necks. With the explosion of the popularity of rock music in the
The Beatles in Hamburg later Kirchherr met the Beatles at the Hamburg airport and told them Sutcliffe had died of a brain haemorrhage. In 1966, Voormann was asked by Lennon to design the sleeve for the Beatles' album "Revolver", and also played bass on solo recordings by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr. In 1995, Voormann designed the artwork for the three-volume CD sets in The Beatles Anthology series. In 1999, Kirchherr published a book called "Hamburg Days" (a two-volume limited edition) containing a set of photographs by Kirchherr and "memory drawings" by Voormann of the Beatles time in Hamburg. The Beatles returned to Hamburg