I was about to comment on the massive pay-off to Hofner arising from the random purchase of a violin bass by the then unknown Macca. On reflection though it probably wasn't that random. IIRC, Stuart Sutcliffe played a Hofner Senator bass, which Macca may well have enjoyed noodling on during idle moments between shifts in Hamburg while Sutcliffe was otherwise engaged with girlfriend Astrid. Although the Senator had a much bigger body, it probably had the same neck so the violin bass would have presented Macca with that nice playable neck on a much less unwieldy body.