Oh my, this is on its way!

[Dave W]

That's what I mean, with that beam it's not a true hollowbody.

Agreed, doesn't look like any alder I've seen, maybe Bulgarian alder is different.

[leftybass]

That's what I mean, with that beam it's not a true hollowbody.

Thank God, semi-hollowbodies are my faves!!  True hollowbodies are too feedback-prone. IME.
As long as the neck is decent I couldn't care less what kinda wood the bass is made of.

[ilan]

It's plywood. The bass balances well on a strap with no neck-dive.

The neck is short scale (30") and narrow at the nut, but thick front-to-back, so it doesn't feel like a Geddy J or an Ibanez pencil neck. It's actually kinda comfy, although mine could use a good refret. The Bulgarian frets are like mandolin frets.

[leftybass]

The Bulgarian frets are like mandolin frets.

Of course they are, it's a Gypsy Bass! 

[Pilgrim]

I wonder if a set of Filtertrons would fit on that??

[ilan]

When I bought mine from the same seller in the Ukraine, he sent it over with the neck detached, in a white cotton cloth bag with some bubble wrap and cardboard pieces, tied with a piece of string - no box! I wonder how Ian's is going to be shipped.

[godofthunder]

 LMFAO hahahahahahahaah

It's a commie Coronado!

[Dave W]

(channeling Yakov Smirnoff here)

In America, you play bass.

In Soviet Bulgaria, bass plays you!

[Pilgrim]

A "Commienado?" 

A "Corocommie"?

[Highlander]

Incomunicado...?

[ilan]

Craponado...?

[Pilgrim]

Corolshevik?

[Barklessdog]

When I bought mine from the same seller in the Ukraine, he sent it over with the neck detached, in a white cotton cloth bag with some bubble wrap and cardboard pieces, tied with a piece of string - no box! I wonder how Ian's is going to be shipped.

The bag looks very suspicious.

[leftybass]

It's here!

All strung up, with Chromes.

My main concern was that the neck was stable and not warped. Neck is in good shape, action is great. The neck is clearly copied from a Hofner, it's exactly like a Hofner "Cavern".
Has a 5-pin output jack, new standard T/S jack on it's way. The tuners are passable, they hold tuning just fine, and look cool so I probably won't plan on replacing them. Tailpiece is kinda crappy, I will replace that. The neck pickup is at the proper distance from the strings, so unless it's weak, as noted by Ilan, or sounds crappy, I'll probably keep the pickups. But, the good thing is, since there's no routing in the top for the pickups, I can drop in anything if I should choose to. Once I get the jack installed I'll give it a listen, but plays just fine.

[ilan]

Congrats! Looks great.

And you got the cloth sack too! LOL! Don't they have cardboard boxes in the Ukraine?

You're right about the neck profile being Hofner-like. Are you sure the bridge is where it's supposed to be? In the pic it looks about an inch and a half south of its proper location. 

Enjoy your Bulgarian art deco beauty!