Sir Paul McCartney requests a first class seat for his prized guitar.

The Beatles star has admitted his iconic 1963 Hofner bass guitar gets the special treatment whenever he flies with it, with the instrument sometimes being treated to it's own seat and seatbelt.

He told The Sun newspaper: ''My guy [assistant John Hammel] looks after it like his own child and he won't let anyone take it.

''He is very particular about it - more than I am. Sometimes it gets its own little seat and seatbelt.''

It is no surprise that Paul, 72, wants to keep a tight reign on the instrument after a guitar once used by fellow Beatles star, the late George Harrison, recently sold for over £300,000.

The rare Maton MS-500 Mastersound is said to have been used by the 'Hey Jude' hitmaker during the height of the band's fame in 1963.

The guitar was kept in the loft of its previous owner for twenty years before being displayed at the now-closed National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield, England.

It was then sold to a private dealer in Leeds, who paid £23,000 for it, before being auctioned off once again recently at a music memorabilia sale in New York, where it commanded the hefty six-figure sum.