I would agree that solid body Höfners were junk, they were poorly designed low-grade Fender-influenced guitars. But the hollow-bodies were different. Nobody else made basses with violin-family construction. Gibson's EB2 looked similar but had a center block and sounded very different (you know what I think about their sound. And they definitely don't rock). The Senator, President, Committee, 500/3, 500/5 basses didn't look rock'n'roll - but you can say the same about a burst Les Paul. So it's an image thing.