SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A Providence man's labor of love will son be in the hands of legendary Beatles front man Paul McCartney.
Dave Jorgensen is a 5th grade teacher by trade, but his passion and hobby is music, specifically Beatles music.
Jorgensen's love of Beatles music and Paul McCartney's legacy led him to become a musician himself, fronting a local Fab Four cover group called Get Back.
His musical experience eventually led Jorgenson to explore the craft of guitar making, and after some trial-and-error, the River Heights Elementary teacher now produces 2 or 3 instruments a year.
Jorgensen took his daughter to a McCartney concert in Las Vegas in 2001, and thought he'd like to make a bass guitar similar to Sir Paul's signature instrument.
When he heard McCartney was coming to Utah for the first time a few months ago, Jorgensen decided he would make a bass and offer it as a gift to Paul. He would have to speed up the process, since it takes Jorgensen about 6 months to produce just one custom instrument.
After 200 hours of workmanship and a little bit of his own money, Jorgenson finished his McCartney tribute bass earlier this month. He was elated to discover that a Rio Tinto Stadium official would present the bass to McCartney on Tuesday night.
The bass guitar has some pearl symbols in-layered into the woodwork, including an individual reference to the other three Beatles and McCartney's late wife Linda, who died from cancer 12 years ago.
The guitar is unique to the German-built Hofner bass, a left-handed short-scale four string instrument purchased by McCartney in the early 1960s and used most often by Paul in concert and in the studio. Jorgensen used Hofner electronic parts to build the instrument.
Jorgensen doesn't think he will get to meet McCartney before or after Tuesday night's concert, but says he would be equally satisfied that one day Sir Paul will actually pick up the instrument and give it a try. Knowing that his gift was used by a one of the greatest songwriters and artists of the past century would be honor enough to the man from River Heights.
"I didn't build a bass to meet Paul McCartney. I just wanted build a bass to thank him," said Jorgensen. "Thank him for all that I've gotten from him all these years."
