| Jukebox madness |
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| Written by Tom Beharrell | |
| Saturday, 16 April 2005 | |
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I first knew I wanted a jukebox when
I must have been about eight years old - there was a Wurlitzer on Blue
Peter, and I
even bought the magazine for a chance to win one in their competition!
The combination of music, records & a visible record changing
mechanism, buttons and mechanics was fascinating! Since then it was on the back burner until I moved into my own house. After a few ideas about what to do with the kitchen, I thought back to the fantastic diner in my home town of Kingston-upon-Hull, Yankeeburger. A 50s retro diner complete with jukebox it had to be!  The Seeburg AY160 in our dining room
I had a very limited budget, and although I wanted a silver age (1950s chrome) jukebox with a visible mechanism, a good working one was way out of reach. So I found a Seeburg AY160 in the local area, in fair condition, and a colleague gave me a lift in her van to bring it home. The AY160 is a 1961 Seeburg with a semi-visible mechanism - there is a narrow part of the glass that you can see through to the Selectomatic mechanism beneath. The Seeburg uses their 'Selectomatic' mechanism; a horizontal magazine of records, each standing vertically, with a carriage in front that moves along the row, incorporating the playing mechanisms (turntable, arm, stylus etc.) Selections are stored using Tormat - toriodal memory, a primitive type of binary storage where states are held by the magnetic charge on a ring of metal, affected by the passing of an electric current. My AY160 was in heavy need of an overhaul. The whole unit really needed stripping down for a full service. I always planned to have a go, but it needed such a lot of work that I felt it wasn't worthwhile, for a jukebox I'd only want to upgrade anyway. I was put off by the Seeburg design too - the Tormat meant it was much more complicated than a standard electro-mechanical jukebox, and probably needed a specialist to really bring it back. So I'd had it for a couple of years, used it half a dozen times, and was bored. This year I had another look through my Jukebox books. Although there are some gorgeous Wurlitzers (from the 1700 through 2100 series) they would be too expensive. But then I saw a 1955 Rock Ola model 1448 on eBay, in need of some work but cosmetically looking very good indeed. Looking through my books, the design really grabbed me, and it looked a good neat size to fit in the diner. I showed the auction to Sarah, as I often have in the past. She was (as usual) not so enthusiastic, but did say she'd think about it if I sold the Seeburg. So I thought I might as well try... and in under 3 hours of listing the Seeburg, I sold it! The next weekend was when the Rock Ola auction ended. As always with eBay, to get a good bargain it's worth hanging on to the last minute so the price doesn't get driven up over the length the auction is open. So, with 40 seconds to go, I placed a bid that I hoped would outbid the current auction winner, and any other 'lurkers'. Luckily it did! |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 April 2005 ) |
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