Jukebox question Changed my mind and got a Trash can!!

[loman4ec]

I am looking for a jukebox to use in my house. I want to spend as little as possible as we don't have a lot of money. I found a juke here local that is a good working juke that I can get for $100. I know it isn't the best looking but it would be a cool player juke to use in the living room. Someday I will upgrade to something better but what do you guys know about the 1970's Wurlitzers? He said it came out of his Dad's bar and then was in his house and has always played. I will repaint it and get it looking better but he says it plays. Is it worth that much? It does not come with the records at that price but I have a ton of records. his musis is not really to my taste so I would prefer to use my music, Here is the link. What do you all think. Is it worth that uch? If I ever decide to sell it can I get my $150 back out of it. I will pay $100 for it then I figure $50 cleaning it up and painting to get it usable in the house. Any input?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Working-Wurlitzer-Balti-II-Jukebox-Many-78s-60s-7-/160449770131?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255b8d3293#ht_545wt_1139

[Kilroy]

I'm partial to the visible mech era, but if it plays, and sounds good, for $100 you can't go wrong.
Can you  resell it later?? I don't see why not. not everyone wants, let alone can afford  A  VL200 or C.

[loman4ec]

Never mind I just bought a trash can. I ended up getting a metal cabinet 148. I couldn't pass it up. I got a 148 for $125. It is complete except for the back door, the top dome and the top animation. One red side plastic is warped and one is good. It was last plugged in 15 years ago and it worked when it was unplugged. He spoke to a so called expert and was told not to plug it in and that it would have to be plugged into a device to bring it up to power slowly or it will blow the amp up. I have never heard of that. Have any of you? I have always just plugged in jukes when I get them. Well I go get it tomorrow morning. Another plus is the juke is only about 15 minutes away.

I think I did well on this one. What do you all think. Is that a good price for a trash can?

[Kilroy]

Um,  you know it was a  originally a 78 player.
The door is hard to come by,  but the other parts are available from Victory.
I think the power up slow  meant,  without knowing the condition of the caps,  it's not good to  plug in. Sound advice, since it's been sittting for 15 years.
  you did good Josh, i paid 400 for mine, and they do have a great sound,  and the last of Seeburg's  non visible mech players

[loman4ec]

It is actually still a 78 player. I want to be able to play records and also see if I can tap into the amp and hook my ipod to the amp and play ipod music. Is that possible to do with the original amp? The signal should be the same as the record player right??

I am glad to hear that I got a good deal. I thought $125 was a good deal. What is on the back door besides the door? Is the door wood or metal? This is a metal cabinet machine? Does anyone have a metal cabinet trashcan? If yes can you send pictures of the back door?

[Kilroy]

Never tried to  hook up an amp to  an ipod, sohould work.
I  have to get over to my Dad's this weekend, I where my 148 is stored, I can  get pictures for you , and I promised Collecture I'd go  looking  for the Westinghouse Jr  parts.
As I recall, the rear  of the 148,  and doors   are metal,  unlike the later seeburgs,  no amp or stepper was attached to the back.
 It's also to my knowledge the only  all metal chassis jukebox. The door is just pressed sheet metal, with a lock.  Should be  easy to fabricate.

Welcome to the trashcan club,   and feel free to contact me  via pm or Jlajb  at motorcity jukebox.com anytime

[David D]

congrats that's a great deal, not sure what's available on 78's but you should be able to find something.

[BrianB]

Josh,

Congrats on the Seeburg 148. My first juke was a 146. I got a chance to dig pretty deep into it as far as the mechanism and the electronics go. They are very robust machines and the record mechanism is an amazing peice of engineering.

When it comes to powering up antique/vintgae electronics it is always recommended that you power them up slowly. Why? Let me explain.

The main concern is the capacitors. The primary focus within the caps used are the electrolytic caps and oil filled paper caps. In the older amps, such as yours, there are a combo of mica, ceramic and electrolytic caps. The "Paper Caps" are made out of rolled paper and are oil filled. After years of use, or non-use, they physically dry up. Here's the problem, you apply instantaneous 115V to a dried up cap and the potential for a blow out or a fire is greatly increased.

If you use a variable power supply such as a Variac to slowly ramp the power up, you "gracefully" apply power and the likelyhood of blowing a bad cap or making fire are greatly reduced.

Here's  a picture of some paper caps that I replaced from a antique car radio just to give you an idea of what to look for. I personally replace ALL capactiors in any old amp that I work on and any out of tolerance or bad resistors.

[mznb1u]

Nice juke, Josh!  And I would listen to BrianB about those capacitors and powering up slowly.

If you over-power the flux capacitor you could end up back in 1954! 

  Tim

[loman4ec]

Does anyone have the mnual for one of these in soft copy that I can use? I need to trouble shoot the mech. It works great but one selection is stuck in the play position and I need to reset it. This thing was full of old 78's also. WHen I first turned it on the turn table was spinning and I out a record on it and it played great and then it took a selection and everything wrks but one selection is stuck and won't go in. If I can figure out the mech this thing will play great!