How did "Seeburg
Ed"
get started with jukes?
I happened to stop off at
a garage sale near my
parents home (50's suburb of Los Angeles). I
originally stopped to look at a table saw and walked
right past what I originally mistook for a wall heater.
On
my way back to the car I took a second look and
realized it wasn't
a heater - it was a jukebox!. Within
a few minutes I was heading
home to lug it into the
apartment before my wife got home and saw "our"
new acquisition.
(Interesting side note: Over
the years I've found that
the trick is to get things inside the
home, once
inside it's much harder for spouses to say "NO"
afterwards)
The guy in charge of the garage
sale was the
original owner who built his house from scratch in
the mid 50's and incorporated this CU into a
custom
entertainment center. I later converted the
Custom Unit (CU)
into a Library Unit (LU). Take a
look below at the restoration
process.
Original Korina wood face
frame
from my Custom Unit. Frames
left the Seeburg
factory with a
blond finish that was designed
to allowed
you to apply a dark
stain over it if you so desired.
Here I am carefully stripping the
dark walnut stain that was
applied by the original owner
Here is the original Select-o-Matic
200 mechanism that came with
Custom Unit wood face. The
mechanism was cleaned, lubed,
and adjusted (CLA) before
being
fitted into the restored Library Unit
cabinet.
Here is the assembled unit. The
cabinet was restored and finished
in a burnt umber tinted
lacquer.
The new decals I recreated have
been
applied.
The unit is sitting on a separate
base cabinet I
have designed but
have yet to physically build (the
base you see in the photo was
digitally created in PhotoShop).
This base will have the same look
and feel as the unit itself and
will
incorporate a Seeburg High
Fidelity Power Amplifier
and 12"
speaker and horn.
Why did you create this website?
I'm still trying to figure
that one out. Everything started
out kind of by accident and
kept snowballing until it
reached its present state.
A little while back, I needed some decals for my Library
Unit restoration project. I looked around but couldn't
find any, so I recreated the artwork myself and sent out
to have a couple of sets made. After restoring my
jukebox, I thought somebody else out there has got to
need a set of these decals - I can't be the only kook. I
put my spare set up for auction on eBay and
surprisingly
received a lot of responses.
I decided to contact everyone who responded
to see if
they wanted to place an order so that we could send
out and have another batch produced with everyone
sharing/saving
on the printing costs. In the process of
taking orders, I
started putting together a list of
everyone I contacted. This
list grew quickly (to date, I've
communicated with hundreds of Select-o-Matic
200
owners). The list was great for getting in touch
with
other LU owners, but It was an inappropriate place to
peddle my goods. It didn't take me long to realize that a
website was needed. I also wanted to compile and
post as much information as possible for other
frustrated
LU owners. That's when I decided to learn
how to create a
website and well...here we are today.
I no longer use the list for placing
orders, instead I rely
on the website for that. The nice thing
about the
website is that it allows interested people to contact
me first instead of me contacting them. The list is still
alive and growing, but it's sole purpose now is to have
interested people get in touch and help each other fix /
repair/ get parts / sell parts for these jukeboxes.
If you'd
like to have your name on the list, just visit the
"Contact Info & Registry"
page.
Who is
"Seeburg Ed?"
Seeburged
is just a user name I came up with for
the Yahoo groups. I
like Seeburgs and my first
name is Ed so I just combined the two.
"Seeburged"
vs. "SeeburgEds?"
When I created my user name,
I didn't think to put a
space or underscore between the two parts,
as a
result my Yahoo handle reads as one word -
"seeburged". I
later found out that this is a
derogatory term used by old jukebox
servicemen to
describe the effect of a record getting chewed up
by
a Select-o-Matic mechanism.
When the time came to
create a website and
register a domain name, I thought
"chewed-up-records.com"
just isn't what I'm
looking to convey. That's when I decided
to add the
"s" and graphically capitalize the first
letter of each
word. SeeburgEds.com
seemed a lot friendlier -
kind of like getting a cup of coffee at
"Java Joe's".
What are you doing with the
loads of money you're
making off this website?
All profits (if any) will
go to the
"Baby Seeburg"
college fund. I tell myself that it's kind of like tossing
change into a jar at the end of the day. She's only 6
months old now, but I figure that 17.5 years from now
I might accumulated sufficient change to pay for her
dorm meal card. Judging by the way she's
developing day by
day, I can already tell that by the
time she turns 16 she's going
to want to bust open
the piggy bank her
Ol' Dad
set up and blow the wad
on a car.
I'm still trying to
figure that one out
• Click on covers
below for more information •
|
What's the difference between
a coin-op
Select-o-matic and a non-coin-op
Select-o-matic?
It's less than people think. I
like to compare
these classic jukeboxes to classic cars. Lets
take for example the '57 Chevy Bel Air
Convertible and
the '57 Chevy Bel Air Nomad.
They're very similar cars - the
body work and
trim pieces just change a little. Sure one
conjures up images of "wind blowing in your
hair
along Pacific Coast Highway" and the
other conjures up images
of "mom, the kids
and groceries", but they're still basically
the
same car. Nomads weren't considered
collectibles
a little while back, but they sure are
desired now.
OK, maybe
comparing the convertible to the
four door Townsman would be a little
more
accurate analogy.
Don't let yourself be put down by
the few snooty
jukebox collectors (just a few) who imply that
anything non-coin-op is a boat anchor.
I guarantee you that
when the time comes for
that collector to look for spare parts (ie:
mech
cover), he all of a sudden will not discriminate
against the non-coin-op Select-o-Matic.
"A"
is to
"B"
as
"C"
is to
"D"
(not
"E")
|
"A"
is to
"B"
as
"C"
is to
"D"
(not
"E")
|
After cleaning up the CU wood
face, I realized that I would never
be able to mount
this into the
wall of a rented apartment. I
contacted
Warren Rowe (a local
jukebox serviceman) and
purchased
a wrecked Library
Unit cabinet and restored it. The
cabinet looked like it had been
left outside and judging
from the
stains looked like it had
supported 3 potted
plants at one
time. As a result the top had
sustained
severe water damage.
I located a matching rift-cut white
oak veneer, replaced the top
panel, and re-veneered.
The
entire cabinet was bleached to
remove water stains. It
was then
sealed, and tint lacquered.
The interior was painted
in the
same factory parchment paper
color. All
interior labels (even the
UL label) were recreated and
applied. The microphone
junction box was also
recreated.
Restoration Process
Custom Unit converted
to Library Unit
|