Early '70s Maton Bindara Acoustic Bass
I bought this one second-hand in a music shop in Canberra Australia in 1975 for a measly $175 with the original hard case. I had recently bought my FG100 and knew that Maton was a quality brand, so I knew it was a bargain.
Around 1980, just before I sold it, I wrote to Maton to ask about it and they wrote back to say it was about 8 years old, so it would have only been a few years old when I bought it.
Anyway it was pretty impractical and clunky as you can see from the photo below. The depth of the body was about 12 inches (or 30 cm) too - it really was awkward to play. See the photo at bottom right (that I borrowed from another web site). The back was plywood and was not bound, but there was binding on the top. Acoustically I thought it was too quiet to compete with a good loud acoustic guitar, even at that huge ungainly size.
It had an electric style pickup, which is the black bit you can see at the end of the fingerboard. Piezos had barely been invented then (if at all), and were certainly not pre-installed on anything in those days. From memory the first piezos were Barcus-Berry, cost a fortune and you stuck them on the bridge or soundboard of your instrument.
The dark wood strip running parallel with the fingerboard is a raised (looked like rosewood) carved thumb-rest, so you could anchor your thumb while playing the strings with your fingers. You can see I'm doing that in the photo below.
Adelaide, South Australia 1977
I recently found this video of a South Australian band called Saltbush and the Timewasters, in which the bass player is using a Bindara.
