Were vintage (50s, 60s) jukeboxes brutal on vinyl?

Or rather forgiving? Did it depend? I've always just assumed the would be kinda rough on 45's, but I don't know much about them, really. Thanks.

P.S. Any good jukebox web sites? Thanks again.

 

Depends, some were, some were gentle on records. Best on records were Seeburgs in nicely maintained order. Which also had Pickering Magnetic cartridges. AMI and Rockola could be upgraded to them if not fitted with them. Wurlitzer mono machines had Zenit Cobra cartridges which weren't really designed for microgrooves until the Stereo models appeared which used Sonotone ceramics.

 

You can usually tell if a box or boxes of records served jukeboxes; mis-matched sleeves, few scratches but heavy groove damage.

Yes, jukeboxes were brutal on vinyl. I avioid 'em like the plague.

 

yes they were, because for a jukebox, "Skipping" was just unacceptable. Best way to prevent that? Heavy tracking force to keep the needle in the groove. They didnt really care about record wear because their jukebox route guy would rotate the records on a schedule.

 

I remember going to the bowling alley when I was 14 and playing "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" 12 times in a row to irritate people. Yes, I would imagine those records took a beating.

 

The problem is that the styli were probably never changed out until they broke or mis-tracked so badly that they no longer played properly.

I have a 1987 AMI Rowe jukebox that I keep stocked with 45s. It sounds great (though is a far cry from the 50s and 60s models asked about by the OP). I use a Shure N44-7 stylus which should be pretty gentle on the 45s despite the heavy tracking force. Still, I don't have any 45s in there that aren't too valuable or rare.

 

Far more brutal to the record in a jukebox, is when the gripper pulls the record in and out of the magazine (as shown in my 1962 Rockola Princess) The magazine in most of these old jukes, were just like the old wire racks that many people used to store there old 45's in. Basically, what you have going on is, plastic being jammed against metal, at a very high rate of speed, thus, scratching the record to death, on every play. The needles and the tonearms weight also caused a lot of damage, but as has already been pointed out, they would get replaced often.

 

Sorry, I forgot to add the photo....

 

Nice jukebox, Chris!

Am I right in thinking that unit plays both large-hole and small-hole 45s? I sure wish I had that option on mine, since I can only play the large-hole 45s.

 

That spindle was designed as a speed switch for the 45 singles and 7" 33 1/3 RPM Jukebox Little LP discs. Looks like this jukebox is a Rock-Ola Princess. Which is a beautiful jukebox. And the arm can track at 2 grams with the Shure M 44-7 and is easy on records.

 

No, the photo is my 1962 Rock-Ola Princess. It is only equipped to play large hole 45 rpm singles. I also have an AMI Continental II and it does have a switch built right into the center spindle, that allows play for both, large hole 45's and small hole 33 1/3 jukebox extended play EP's.

 

Full photo of my 1962 Rock-Ola Princess...

 

Its a wonder you didn't take a beating !

 

Nice, Chris. No matter what happens to the 45's, when I see that picture, I REALLY want one of those!!

 

They were pretty rough. And this is when people smoked indoors; cafes, restaurants, bars....

Not only are ex-jukebox 45s invariably groove worn - but they are typically coated with a fine coating of yukky smoke tar.

But dang - they're cool.

 

They're cool in styling and fun to watch work but they beat the daylights out of the records. I go to a place that has an old Wurly that's been refitted with a Rowe CD mechanism. They say they've got all the original stuff at the house. It works similar to a record jukebox. Now they can just have a dummy record and needle to make it look like the original and have it cue a sound file on a server, including artificial record noises.

 

I had that 45 when I was a kid and I always thought the chorus rocked. It--was--an--itsy bitzy teeny weeny...etc.

Mine got destroyed when I was taking it and two other records (one of which was "Zorro" by the Chordettes) to a friends house and I had them over the right handlbar of my bike. I got too close to a parked car on my right and the records hit the sharp tail light and all three broke.

I was seven at the time.

Doug

 

If you done that in any of the snooker halls were I spend most of my teenage years you'd have gone straight out the door, horizontally!

 

Beautiful Rock-Ola. I like the Princess a lot. Nice original or very nice restoration on your example.

 

I didn't know that some Jukeboxes were so rough on 45s!

Kind of takes some of the charm away.

 

Boy, here's an old thread back from the dead!

Yes, jukeboxes were hard on 45's. Even the recent jukeboxes, like the Wurlitzer replica 1015 (aka the "One More Time" model), had a stylus pressure of like 5-6 grams or something. And the load/unload mechanisms and the carousel were a little rough. I think back in 1960s, the usual deal was to change out all the records every 4-6 weeks for variety, but most jukebox distributors would junk them.

No question, the experience was very cool, but high-fidelity it wasn't. On the other hand, there's something impressive about a real 45RPM (or god knows, an original 78RPM) jukebox that you don't get with a CD or digital jukebox.

 

Yes! ALL the records played on them now have big holes in the centre lol

 

As a kid, I used to buy 'Pop-Ex - ex jukebox records' from a local store. Most were ok, but I think that's becuase I liked punk songs, and most patrons of the places the jukeboxes were in, never played those songs. They all had the centres smashed out, with a rough edge around the centre hole. They all came in this sleeve:

 

In the late fifties, when I was a kid, my grandmother worked at the local Terp Ballroom and they would give her records out of the juke box to give to me. I still have some of them and, even though there is wear evident, it is not as bad as you might think.

MGM must have used really tough vinyl because "The Purple People Eater" still sounds surprisingly good.

Doug

 

Out East and in all really major markets for a long time, all jukeboxes were owned by companies and the bar paid a fee and the company maintained it and kept the records in it. If an owner put his own jukebox in unfortunate things could happen, unless it was a cop bar or a nonprofit that was off limits to muscle. It was VERY mobbed up so the guys that did the maintenance were often a bunch of hoods.

I don't know when this ended but apparently it has ended.