I have just met McCartney, held the Hofner, 59 LP, Epi

[ilan]

Update: in 2 hours I'm meeting with Keith, Paul McCartney's guitar tech. Anything that you think I should ask him? Other than what's it like to take care of such historically significant instruments, and doesn't he sometimes wish Sir Paul got some new basses with less maintenance than a certain 45 years old German bass that needs neck resets and refrets... And why does Paul hang to his old guitars, is he a sentimental guy or is it to please the crowd that wants to see him with the Beatle bass. I can't get into technical stuff (this is for TV...) but I'll ask anyway if there's something you want to know and can post here in the next hour. Thanks

[jps]

Update: in 2 hours I'm meeting with Keith, Paul McCartney's guitar tech. Anything that you think I should ask him?

yeah, what kind of strings does Paul use on the Höfner, besides "long, shiny ones"!

[marc67]

Just got a call from Ilan from the park in Tel Aviv, where McCartney will play tonight. Ilan just interviewed Keith, McCartney's technical manager and asked me to post that he will upload the whole interview and paste a link to it.
One highlight from the interview was that Paul still uses "the" 4001S for recordings...interesting...!

[rickenbrother]

Very cool Ilan! Looking forward to your posts about the meeting and the concert.

[rickfan63]

I hope things go off all right with this show. Considering the death threats that have been made. Security should be tighter than it's ever been.

[johnallg]

Dang, way too late - I wonder if Paul still has the 4004C and what his impressions of it are. Oh well, maybe next time, Ilan!

[ilan]

Update: today I have edited the TV interview with Keith Smith, Paul's technical manager. It's almost 9:00 minutes long. We talked about the '63 Hofner, the "Cavern" reissue, Epi Texan, Gibson Uke, the '59 Gibson LP... and the old Ric. It will probably take a couple more days before it's uploaded, then I'll post a link. I have two opening sentences in Hebrew, then the interview itself is in English.

[kiramdear]

Cool, Ilan. I'm on the edge of my seat

[jps]

Did you find out what kind of long, shiny strings Paul uses?

[ilan]

I assumed they were Pyramids... should I have asked? Keith did say that Paul generally likes things unchanged, and if he put a different set of strings, for example, Paul will notice - but will not know exactly what's changed. He'll just ask Keith to bring the bass back to where it was before the change.

[jps]

Ignorance is bliss!

[kiramdear]

He's beyond gear, just 100% focus on the music. Ultimate poverty is the ultimate luxury. The queen of England walks around with nothing but a little camera on her person, she's so beyond material concerns, too.

[johnallg]

JH has posted before of helping Paul's bass tech (IIRC) with finding old sets of Rick flatwounds, so I would think those are the strings (the old Maximas) that Paul has used. If memory serves me.

I too anxiously await the interview.

[Prowl]

resurrecting an old thread can be fun, but I was curious if the interview was ever posted? This whole thing has been very interesting to read

[s4001]

Most excellent!!!