Jay’s Music Reviews Score:
Today I have the pleasure of reviewing a unique one-off storage product that I recently had custom-made after being unable to find anything similar on the existing market. After looking around for quite a while and being displeased with literally every cassette storage product that extensive searches yielded – I decided to design my own. I drew up some quick preliminary sketches of what I’d had in mind and sent the draft over to my girlfriend – who happens to be a great artist and woodworker. We discussed all the specifications at length, and after making some minor reparations to the design – she disappeared into her workshop to create my vision.
It took quite a while to produce because she was making it on the side while supervising the woodshop at the university where she works – but I knew the result would be worth waiting for. During this time, she kept me in the loop by sending me process photographs and regular updates on its progress, but I never really saw it towards the end of its completion – it was to be a surprise! So, Christmas came around and she’d just flown into to the UK to spend the season with my family and I. Of course, I was excited to see her – but I couldn’t hide the fact I was excited to receive my box – offering to carry her bags just so I could try get a sneaky peak. As it happens, she couldn’t wait to show me anyway, so as soon as we got back to the apartment she got it out. It was beautiful. She’d put her heart and soul into it – which reflected in the quality of the product. Apparently, while working on it she’d had a lot of people trying to get their hands on it – saying “it must be for someone very special”.
The box is built out of solid wood- primarily Canadian Hard Maple, with sliding dividers made of Baltic Birch ply. Both the box and lid are constructed with well crafted finger-joints which are a sweet detail. Another significant visual feature is the Beech striping across the lift-off lid. It looks beautiful and functions exactly as I’d intended. With all dividers installed, the maximum capacity becomes 24 cassette tapes. These dividers can be removed to create larger spaces to hold a cassette walkman or tape cleaning tools etc. The spacing of the dividers can be changed so the cassettes can be stacked face up. Lastly, when turned upright, the box becomes a nice little cassette rack. I’m really happy with it. The wood is so smooth – she spent hours sanding it down! She’s realised my vision brilliantly. It’s aesthetically pleasing and functions great as an interactive piece.
Since she’s Canadian, I think it’s a really nice touch that she produced it using Canadian maple. It’s very special to me, and something I’ll cherish forever. I’m hoping for a 7” inch vinyl record box to match! If you’re interested in acquiring one of these boxes for your cassettes, they ARE available to be commissioned – but could set you back a bit due to the craftsmanship involved. At the moment, I’m enjoying the privilege of being the only person in the world to own this beautiful cassette box!
Jay's Music Blog 