Foreign policy on hold, I think this was a good deal. That break doesn't look either that bad, being on the tuner side, or badly repaired. Most banjo peg EBs suffer far worse cracks. Your luthier should be able to inspect the work, and possibly only do quality touch up to the finish. It seems to be missing the pickguard and rod cover - both of those are easily replaced as long as you aren't a goober and demand something from the exact year. And when you figure on the huge cottage industry of making aged truss rod covers for Les Pauls, you should be able to get one that looks like it is from 1959. The finish wear on the back was earned from honest living, and I would not care a bit about that. Add to that you have the original brown case, and that is some really nice icing on the cake. Most of those got snagged by vintage dealers to sell to goobers with their ES335 dot necks. The case is worth a few hundo as is. So, considering these things have asking prices (non-broken) increasingly in the 10 grand range, and hardly ever show up in decent shape anymore, you got a deal. A single coil pup from earlier would have been nice, but what the hey? The pole in the middle pup is the same as the later 60s mudbuckers, so you could drop one in while awaiting the re-wind.
As far as the banjo pegs, the key to their proper working is to purchase correct strings. Low tension is the rule. If you like roundwounds, go for short scale or med scale of decent balance of guage. It has been so long since I had to buy strings for a banjo peg bass that I am not sure who offers what. For flats or tapes, I used Labellas. Roto TruBass tapes were too high tension. I tend to overlook Fender bass strings, but that is a mistake as they offer good strings. I found that med scale rotos worked better as the silk would get into the nut with many short scales. My experience with GHS and D'Addarios were not as good. TI did not exist when last I had one.
The best ever - as always - were Rotosound Multi-Core Flats. Oh, how I miss those.
Good luck! Post pics.