‘Gingerbear’ vintage suitcase boombox.
 
My DM colleague Ron Kretch recently wrote about a massive collection of 300 vintage boomboxes currently up for sale which led to me having a overdue hug-out with my dual-cassette boombox while it blasted tracks from Slayer’s Reign in Blood. Good times indeed. So I was pretty overcome when I came across a company in Portland, Oregon that is doing their best to keep things “weird” by creating something I am now coveting—vintage suitcases that have been converted into boomboxes. I’d tell Portland to go home because it’s drunk again, but in this case I’m wishing that I had been clever enough to come up with such a fantastically executed idea myself.
 

‘Lloyd.’
 
After “scouring the earth” for cool-looking vintage suitcases the brother duo behind Case of Bass, Ezra and Alex Cimino-Hurt and their team pair the cases with classic old-school audio equipment like speakers and dials as well as a Lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack that can go almost an entire day without needing to be juiced. Cases come in various sizes and shapes, weigh anywhere from eight to 25 pounds and come integrated with Bluetooth, auxiliary and Mp3 inputs. There’s even one that has been amusingly tricked out to homage the famous carpet in the PDX airport.

The other incredibly cool thing that Case of Bass came up with is something they call “A Touch of Bass.” Which is the wild idea to mount photographs of boom boxes on rigid material in a frame in a shadow box that holds a bluetooth sound system rigged with speakers mounted behind the photograph. In the words of the mad audiophile scientists at Case of Bass, it’s as if the picture hanging on your wall “has come to life.”

As you might imagine these unique audio creations are not cheap by any definition, but that isn’t going to stop me from lusting after every last one of them. Images of Case of Bass’ portable musical mashups follow. More information and all the products currently available from Case of Bass can be found here.
 

‘Big Blue.’
 

‘Cyclops.’
 

‘Da Ruckus.’
 

‘Firefly.’
 

‘Green Monster.’
 

‘Little Lou.’
 

‘Plympton.’
 

‘Rolo.’
 

‘The Brown Tote.’
 

‘Tock.’
 

‘Slide.’
 

 

‘Biphonic’ wall mounted vintage photograph of a boombox with integrated Bluetooth sound system.
 

‘GP 1’ wall mounted vintage photograph of a boombox with integrated Bluetooth sound system.
 

‘Goldtone’ wall mounted vintage photograph of a boombox with integrated Bluetooth sound system.
 

A short video on Case of Bass and the creative process behind their tricked out suitcase boomboxes.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Rise and Fall of the Boombox