I grabbed the Cohesion BandBox during Amazon's extended Black Friday event during the '09 holiday season. I had found that between my Rock Band and Guitar Hero habit, my living room was getting very cluttered with little plastic instruments. Since the
AK Rock Box Gaming and Storage Ottoman with Drum Lift (Black)
was showing out of stock / not available, this seemed like the obvious choice.
What's good?
First off, there's a ton of space inside the box. Drums, mic, guitar and bass can easily fit inside with no problem. Unfortunately if you have both Guitar Hero and Rock Band drums, you're still out of luck, this won't hold both at the same time. As long as you don't mind the guitars lying on top of each other, you could probably fit four or more inside of the box (a lot more if you're not including the drums).
The drum mount does extend the height of the drums quite a bit - so if you're a tall drummer who's always lamented the extremely short height range of the plastic drums, this might be worth looking into.
What's bad?
The "drum mount" is a two piece item, the actual rod which is attached to the storage bench folds up and down for easy clean up. Unfortunately the mount that's attached to the drums has to come off every time you're done playing. It's not a hard breakdown, but it just seemed silly that there was no way to store the drums without disassembling the stand.
If you're still on the corded instruments, there are no cord holes to thread through. So you can either leave the instruments plugged in and the cords hanging out of the mouth of the ottoman or unplug the USB hub every time.
Also, remember that since you're getting rid of the drum stand, your foot pedal no longer has a brace to attach to. You can lean the pedal against the ottoman itself, but you'll probably still get quite a bit of side-to-side movement. If you're a Rock Pedal (or other 3rd party pedal) user, it will fit inside, but the interior is made out of a faux velvet which doesn't seem to shed much, but may end up clogging up your velcro hooks.
Conclusion:
The BandBox isn't a bad offering into the world of gaming peripheral storage. The ottoman itself is pretty bland and non-offensive so it should go with most home decors (or at least blend in to the point where people don't notice it), but there's some nice leeway for improvement should the company go for round two. For now however, it's not a bad storage option for those of us with too many plastic instruments.
*** Nov. 2010 - Rock Band 3 Update ***
I thought that I should just update this review by saying that if you decide to purchase the
Rock Band 3 PRO-Cymbals Expansion Kit
, your drums will no longer fit inside the BandBox unless you remove your cymbals each time you put them away. They will not fit while attached to the drums.
| Item Package Dimensions L x W x H | 36.4 x 20.8 x 16.8 inches |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 45.6 Pounds |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 35 x 19 x 17.35 inches |
| Item Weight | 43 Pounds |
| Brand Name | Cohesion |
| Color | Black |
| Manufacturer | Cohesion |
| Sport Type | Multi-Sport |
