The search for Paul McCartney’s legendary Hofner bass guitar, one of the crucial components to early Beatles songs such as ‘Twist and Shout,’ ‘Love Me Do,’ and ‘She Loves You’, has kicked off in an international location.

The icon bought the instrument in 1961 for about $37 from a Hamburg, Germany, shop. The Lost Bass Project group started a search, looking for all information regarding the whereabouts of this historic guitar. The group made note of the importance of this bass guitar, which has powered Beatlemania and shaped modern world music. After its use in 1969 with the Beatles, it disappeared.

The Lost Bass Project appealed to anyone with credible information on the bass guitar to come forward. It put up photos of the original guitar as well as its purchase history and how it disappeared, along with tips on separating real information from rumours and fakes.

The project parallels another lost guitar associated with John Lennon that was used to compose ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand.’ This vanished during a Beatles Christmas show in 1963 but reappeared 51 years later and was sold at auction for $2.4 million. The search hopes to bring McCartney’s bass back into music history and McCartney himself.