Popularity of Hofner Basses - Question

[cockroach]

Years ago, I actually bought quite cheaply, a very early model Hofner violin bass, which had the black plastic covered pickups and four control knobs mounted on a small round plate...should have kept it, it must have dated from the late '50's , well before the one that McCartney had...

It had a slim neck, but a bit bowed, with a high action and the intonation wasn't the best. There was not much of a tonal range either, but it was very light in weight and easy to play.