The Beatles: Sir Paul McCartney reunited with 'Love Me Do' guitar stolen decades ago

Sir Paul McCartney has been reunited with the bass guitar used on Love Me Do and She Loves You 51 years after it was stolen.

A global search was launched in 2018 to find the guitar bought by Paul in Hamburg for just £30 in 1961. The Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass was stolen in 1972, and its location was unknown until the Lost Bass project, headed by expert Nick Wass, was able to get the guitar returned to Paul.

The project tracked the timeline of the bass which was stolen from the back of a van on Tuesday, October 10, 1792. Those working on the project were also able to find out to whom the bass had been sold - to a landlord in London.

Eventually, after appealing via the media for help, a person living in Hastings on the south coast of England contacted Paul's company and returned the bass to them. The guitar is complete and with its original case, though it will need some repairs to make it playable once more, the Lost Bass Project said.

Höfner expert Wass told the BBC previously that the Beatles asked him about the guitar in a conversation, and that is how the campaign kicked off. He told the BBC: "It's not clear where it was stored, who might have been there." He added: "For most people, they will remember it... it's the bass that made the Beatles."