Hi David, if you google 'Hofner Colorama' and log into Vintage Hofner, look at the 1959-1960 one, mine's the one with stripes down the sides, red finish and single cutaway, but mine had two pickups rather than the single p/u model shown in the photograph.  Not a bad instrument for the money - it played very well.  I understand the modern Hofners are brilliant - afraid they're out of my pocket's reach though.  If I can improve enough with my playing my aim today would be a Fender 1952 US Vintage Reissue Telecaster - I've played one in a shop before the stroke got me and this guitar is awesome - the first ones reissued about 1978 weren't that good, but since the Fender management did a buy-out from CBS in 1985 they've gone from strength to strength as far as quality and authenticity is concerned.  I'll just have to keep practising and saving up!

I hope your trapped nerve doesn't cause you too much pain - I don't know if it's curable, but I remember the great American jazzman Gerry Mulligan having a trapped nerve and having to be carried on stage on a dining chair to play his baritone saxophone in New York City, then a few years later I saw him in England at the Davenport Theatre in Stockport and he was fine, so there's always hope. 

Regards, Neil