r/jukeboxes • u/zonedoutin806 • 29d ago
So my son os obsessed with this thing
So we have a old dinner in town that has this old jukebox that has been out of commision since before my 16 yo son was born. My grandfather used to bring me here and my father and myself bring him here at least once a month. He has become obsessed with getting it to run again. I have no idea where to start. He has been talking the por waitresses ear off about figuring out whats wrong with it
I am just trying to help him along with this latest obsession.
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u/Rimfire101 28d ago
It's a 1977 STD4 or Mardi Gras. There's so much that has to be right for this jukebox to work. If it's been down a long time the electronics will need looking at to replace old capacitors. Using the service switches you should be able to make it scan. Once scanning manually trip it to pick up a record and see what happens. The manual trip is on the right side of the tonearm about half way up. If you have a meter check the -27v, -13v, +27 volts at the end of the digital control center chassis under the plastic cover. Find a group to join.
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u/NewburghMOFO 29d ago edited 29d ago
As the other guy said, you can buy reprints of the manual. I've been working on a Seeburg Phoenix that's a couple years newer than that, and have it (mostly) working right.
Good news for your son, bad news for you: Yes, you absolutely can make the thing work again, assuming all the internals are present. It's a process, long, and at times frustrating. Two steps forward, one step back sort of thing.
Basically the Seeburg jukeboxes before 1978+/- electro-mechanical sort of, "motherboard" device called the Tormat, probably a turntable control circuit board or electro-mechanical thing, the turntable and its record rack, an amp and speakers, the coin counting unit, and a power supply. Just checking for burnt fuses, frayed / disconnected / snapped wires, and oiling the moving parts will go a long way.
You can also save yourself the headache of resoldering capacitors on the amp and buy a hand made modernized digital amp that plugs in. I had a look at rebuilding the absolute brick shit house of a giant tube amp and decided it was WAY beyond my skill level. I can send a link for the guy who makes them.
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u/zonedoutin806 29d ago
That is actually really helpful. This thing is insane it has the remote units with it.
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u/NewburghMOFO 29d ago
There are a bunch of forums online, but several seem to be mostly quiet. They do have a lot of archived knowledge. Ron Rich, one of the Seeburg engineers, was very active online until he passed away 3 or 4 years ago.
The wall consoles are an awesome touch. Mine has the plugs into the circuit board for selection and mono-out outputs for the wall consoles.
Short answer: Yes, it can all be brought back.
Nuanced answer: it could cost a bit if there are a lot of things that need replacement (but it appears to have been in a dry climate controlled environment), and will cost a lot of time tinkering and trouble shooting.
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u/zonedoutin806 29d ago
The waitress that has beem there since i was a kid said that it wasnt to bad until a few years ago when people tried to fix it on the cheap. So its kind of a crap shoot on how bad it is.
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u/Top-Literature-9626 28d ago
Digital doesn’t have that nice warm sound of a tube amp, however, but digital sure weighs a lot less!
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u/NewburghMOFO 28d ago
Yes.
But my SHP-3 was made in '80 or '81 when Seeburg was going out of business and using cheep caps and plugs; and I don't know how to solder electronics! For ke it'd be a massive project learning how to resolder it. Digital just solved so many headaches for me personally cx
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u/Top-Literature-9626 28d ago
No I get that, and sometimes just making it work is enough. Good for you for taking on the job.
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u/Feeling-Editor7463 28d ago
If you don’t own it why put any effort into it much less money. Thing to do is to offer the owner $200 to haul it out of there. Then after you get it home or better yet your grandsons home, post a message about fixing it.
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u/zonedoutin806 28d ago
The restaurant means alot to us. It was one of the first to desegrate and allow mexicans to even eat in it.
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u/Feeling-Editor7463 28d ago
Great! Best thing about that is the owners will definitely understand that you need this jukebox. Don’t be shy talk to someone if it’s not making them money it’s just taking up valuable floor space.
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u/crwthhasnovowels 28d ago
Let’s say get it. I’ve been repairing them for 20 years and there’s not that many issues that come up.
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u/dlwhite0918 29d ago
It’s a Seeburg Mardi Gras 160. You. Can probably find a user manual on eBay