A problem you wouldn’t think our family (the owners of Wax Trax) would have is a lack of good stereo-habitat-type furniture. You’d think it would walk in the door all the time. But it’s actually exceedingly rare even for our friends who deal in stereo systems. Just like you may be doing, we are using random credenzas, cabinets, bookshelves, and even kitchen-style tables to host our stereo set ups and LPs. True, sometimes you can find a gem of a stereo stand if you hunt, but even in the used furniture market you typically have to look for months to find just the right thing. It keeps getting rarer because all the best stuff seems to always be from the 1960s.
Well, we like that solid old 60s-style furniture too. And we like to solve problems. And so do some of our friends at Groundwerk, who happen to make solid furniture. (They’ve been building our store furniture to our specs for years now).
We put our heads together, built some prototypes, tweaked things, made another prototype, and came up with something that is more adaptable for this purpose than any that we’ve seen, while still managing to look good, and be sold at a fair price.
It’s a modular system, with the cheapest module being the Waxtrom S1 (perfect as a standalone piece of furniture or as part of kit) available at $335, and full 3-piece kit at $1,099.
You can put the Waxtrom S1 on the floor, or more ideally on a solid dresser, credenza, or table – anything that can reliably hold around 150 pounds – and have a neat and tidy turntable sitting on top of around 100 LPs. With the larger P2 module you could hold a turntable and receiver. And if you buy the bench the Mid-Century Mod personality really starts to come out in either or both modules.
Compared to the full Waxtrom kit, an antique that could store 200 records and a turntable, receiver, and a tape deck or CD player would easily cost twice as much or more, and even most new pieces with the same amount of style or capacity are in the same range or more likely – more expensive.
The system is loosely based on 1960s modern furniture, but uses furniture-grade plywood as a practical means of attaining affordability. It is built strong enough to dance on, so it’s stackable (though the 1” thick birch-ply bench should be conservatively limited to 400 pounds, or two dancing adults).
We’re also committed to keep making it, and building on this system with new modules as we go. We’re a record store, so it just makes sense to have the stuff you need to play records around for people to buy.
We’re already working on a mini record bin for the top, so you can flip through your current players, and a standalone “Waxtrom P1” module for those who already have plenty of record storage but would simply like to put their turntable on top of their receiver instead of having them side by side.
As much as we can feasibly do here, we’re trying to provide an affordable option. But, if you’re having a good year, we also have the S1 and P2 modules available in red or black formica or even bamboo, with your choice of a light or a dark finish. We’ll even work with you on a custom solid wood set up if you’d prefer, we’re local like that.
Anyway let us know if you’re interested with an email or by putting 20% down on our first production run. We’re basically trying to decipher which material will be most popular to make our first full order with Groundwerk. If you order it, we start production, you get yours and then you’ll be helping to propagate Waxtrom at all of our shops for immediate purchase.
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