Tell me about " Silver Era" Juke Boxes

[uptheaddicks]

I hope to have a significant birthday later this year (one of those which you know you wont see again).
Having seen a lovely old juke box being restored on the BBC "Repair Shop" programme, it struck me, in one of my many idle moments, that I might mark the occasion by buying a juke box, given that an "exotic holiday" is not really on and that current restrictions might have eased by that time.

Trouble is, my knowledge is limited to that which can be Googled in a couple of hours. The machines that take my fancy are AMI Continental 2, Rockola Princess etc from the early 60s.

Your advice and experiences are appreciated!

[Mick P]

I once had a 1959 AMI J200 from around 1995 - 2000. It had two massive speakers almost next door to each other, so not much in the way of stereo sound along with a valve amp. However the resultant sound was fantastic and would easily fill the house with sound. They were built like the perverbial Victorian outdoor brick s******** because they were aimed at teenagers who often gave them a good thump or kick just because they could.

The main downsides are they take up a fair amount of space , especially if you want them as an exhibition piece. They look rubbish if they are not given a decent amount of space to be based in. Check your door dimensions because they are large. Also you really have to buy the seller. Jukeboxes are solidly built and were designed to take abuse but they need to be looked after by someone who knows what the are doing. They were originally checked over about once a week by a mechanic who was on a round of coffee bars and pubs. If you buy a good one, it will go on forever, buy a badly maintained one and the sheer act of moving it will upset everything. Also you will have to get used to playing the same records over and over again. The arms drop on the record with quite a thump, so the needle has to be solid which will eventually knacker the 45rpm record. They were intended just to play a record whilst it was in the top 20, and once it was out of the charts, it was also out of the Jukebox.

The upside is that it can look fabulous when lit up and is always a talking piece and they really do sound good.

They are a bit like vintage watches in the sense that you can improve the sound by replacing the old valve amps with modern solid state ones but you really devalue them by doing so. I would aim for the valve amps which gives a more warm sound.

I sold mine because I had a good Hifi system with large speakers (Linn Isobariks) in the same room which rendered the Jukebox redundant.

Main word of caution - just make sure your other half is ok with it.

My own view is that you haven't lived until you have had one in your house for a few years.

Good luck and let's have a pic if you go ahead.

PS. I forget to say, aim for pre 1960 as the cabinets changed shape and just became square and flat whereas the 1950s models were meant to resemble American cars with all the chrome and wrap around windscreen style windows which looked dead sexy. Strictly speaking, the silver era ended in 1959.