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Three Seeburg `domestics'

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I had 1 of the lp units for custom installs. I bought it nib as an overstock and played with it for a short time. An interesting unit and I actually thought about adding it into my main system. My kid brother loved it also. A customer walked in, saw it and opened his wallet BIG time as I was not really wanting to sell it and he really wanted it. He had never seen 1 and was in the process of building a music room. I made a very quick big profit but my kid brother never let me forget it until I gave him my Marantz 19/Wharfedale W70Ds for his freshman year at Hofstra.
 
The 78 RPM unit is a "SICM" (Seeburg Industrial and Commercial Music) model in a wood case. These were used for background music in department stores and factories, hence the clock timer that would start and stop the mechanism at programmed times. The Seeburg amplifier is a nice monoblock with a pair of 6L6s and decent iron. The amps show up from time to time. It is interesting in that it holds 100 records (200 sides). You can see the trim piece in the middle of the carriage. The same mechanism was used with 50 records in the M100A coin-op jukebox (100 sides), and this has two 50-record racks on one carriage. 100 78s made it too wide for a jukebox, and 50 weren't enough for a decent variety of background music. This mechanism and the automotive-style 1950s styling pushed Seeburg above Wurlitzer in jukeboxes. Wurlitzer took a long time to catch up, as their mechanism could only handle 24 sides. The SICM mechanism was an elegant design, it would handle 10 and 12-inch records automatically. On the SICMs, each record had a lever to select side 1, 2 , both or skip. They would play continuously as programmed by the timer. Coin-op jukeboxes used solenoids to toggle a pair of pins for each record, controlled by a letter-number button matrix. As each record played, a solenoid on the carriage would cancel or reset the pin.

Seeburg later scaled the mech down for 7-inch 45s and it was essentially unchanged for well over 30 years of production. The 45-RPM equivalent to the SICM was called a "Library Unit". These show up from time to time and are fun to go through a box of random 45s from garage sales, etc. The cartridges were custom made for Seeburg by Pickering, and the later ones are quite good, considering. Early monaural cartridges had poor vertical compliance and will tear up stereo records. I have a 7-inch Library Unit that I retrofitted with a stereo pickup from a later model jukebox.

The home consoles were considered a high-end model at the time. The one shown is the later model with a keypad, earlier ones had a rotary telephone dial. Two digits for any of 100 album sides. These used toroid magnetic core memory to keep track of selections. A wired remote with a dial or keypad was available.
 
Jay, that is so interesting. I am always fascinated by how things were done years ago - things that are now accomplished with a chip..! I would like to have the $ and space to be a collector of jukes.

tc

Jukin Jay said:
The 78 RPM unit is a "SICM" (Seeburg Industrial and Commercial Music) model in a wood case. These were used for background music in department stores and factories, hence the clock timer that would start and stop the mechanism at programmed times. The Seeburg amplifier is a nice monoblock with a pair of 6L6s and decent iron. The amps show up from time to time. It is interesting in that it holds 100 records (200 sides). You can see the trim piece in the middle of the carriage. The same mechanism was used with 50 records in the M100A coin-op jukebox (100 sides), and this has two 50-record racks on one carriage. 100 78s made it too wide for a jukebox, and 50 weren't enough for a decent variety of background music. This mechanism and the automotive-style 1950s styling pushed Seeburg above Wurlitzer in jukeboxes. Wurlitzer took a long time to catch up, as their mechanism could only handle 24 sides. The SICM mechanism was an elegant design, it would handle 10 and 12-inch records automatically. On the SICMs, each record had a lever to select side 1, 2 , both or skip. They would play continuously as programmed by the timer. Coin-op jukeboxes used solenoids to toggle a pair of pins for each record, controlled by a letter-number button matrix. As each record played, a solenoid on the carriage would cancel or reset the pin.

Seeburg later scaled the mech down for 7-inch 45s and it was essentially unchanged for well over 30 years of production. The 45-RPM equivalent to the SICM was called a "Library Unit". These show up from time to time and are fun to go through a box of random 45s from garage sales, etc. The cartridges were custom made for Seeburg by Pickering, and the later ones are quite good, considering. Early monaural cartridges had poor vertical compliance and will tear up stereo records. I have a 7-inch Library Unit that I retrofitted with a stereo pickup from a later model jukebox.

The home consoles were considered a high-end model at the time. The one shown is the later model with a keypad, earlier ones had a rotary telephone dial. Two digits for any of 100 album sides. These used toroid magnetic core memory to keep track of selections. A wired remote with a dial or keypad was available.
Click to expand...
 
twocoaster said:
Jay, that is so interesting. I am always fascinated by how things were done years ago - things that are now accomplished with a chip..! I would like to have the $ and space to be a collector of jukes.

tc
Click to expand...

It wasn't exactly a chip, but Seeburg were the first to use solid state memory (200 torroid magnets in a sealed case) in their 200 selection KD Juke Box back in the mid 1950's. They had so much confidence in it that the memory unit had a 5 year guarantee "as long as the sealing tape was not broken". This wasn't their first 200 selection machine; they brought out the V200 in the early 1950's but I think this used pin select (I hope Jay will correct me on this one; I've never worked on a V200). The basic Select-O-Matic single motor mech kept the company going right through from the late 1940's to the 1980's except for the 12" LP players. They changed the design radically; developed a two motor mech with belt drive turntable. Excellent design but marketing madness. None of the 7" Jukes used the two motor mech; all that design r & d for a `domestic' product with a limited market? It will be interesting to see what the LP player in the `States sells for..................Jim.
 
Fascinating stuff! I love jukeboxes, and wish I could collect them, but alas (1) there are precious few in Hong Kong to begin with, all in the hands of people who know what they are, and (2) I haven't the space here to keep them.

The only one I have is a Japanese-market (100V) FAKE! :D It is like those mini-models, but nearly life size...complete with a cassette-deck slot in the side! The Wurlitzer-copy design makes it a funky decoration, though. Sure would be cool to have a REAL one. That "Granada" home model Seeburg probably has much higher WAF than most, as it looks more like furniture than audio gear. The 78 model one is something I would have died for some years ago, when I still had several hundred 78s in my collection. Oh, well.

So which AKers are going to get those beautiful beasts?
 
Thanks, Jim. Neat info here.

tc

Combwork said:
It wasn't exactly a chip, but Seeburg were the first to use solid state memory (200 torroid magnets in a sealed case) in their 200 selection KD Juke Box back in the mid 1950's. They had so much confidence in it that the memory unit had a 5 year guarantee "as long as the sealing tape was not broken". This wasn't their first 200 selection machine; they brought out the V200 in the early 1950's but I think this used pin select (I hope Jay will correct me on this one; I've never worked on a V200). The basic Select-O-Matic single motor mech kept the company going right through from the late 1940's to the 1980's except for the 12" LP players. They changed the design radically; developed a two motor mech with belt drive turntable. Excellent design but marketing madness. None of the 7" Jukes used the two motor mech; all that design r & d for a `domestic' product with a limited market? It will be interesting to see what the LP player in the `States sells for..................Jim.
Click to expand...
 
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