A three year jukebox journey

This whole story starts April 8, 2010.  I had traveled to Nashville, TN to visit a fellow record collecting friend, Ben Blackwell, at his place of employment. Ben is the mastermind behind all things vinyl at Third Man Records, owned by the one and only Jack White. During the visit, Ben struck up a conversation between Jack and Myself around jukeboxes.  During this conversation, Jack asked me if I was up to challenge of fixing this old jukebox that he had sitting in the back of TMR. Apparently, when TMR opened, the jukebox was intended to be used for a variety of events and purposes but the unit wasn't operating and they couldn't find anyone to work on it.  I knew I'd be back in a month or two, so I offered to bring my tools along on my next trip and give it a whirl.

Fast forward to Friday June 4th, 2010, I was in town for the first Vault Party being held at The Basement in Nashville. I rolled into town with tools in hand and proceeded to attempt to revive the dead jukebox, a 1965 Seeburg Electra Discotheque.  After about an hour of working on the jukebox, Jack and I were discussing its state. The unit had all the original parts from 1965, including all the capacitors and parts that age and deteriorate over time. I sadly informed Jack that it was going to need more than what I could do in a few hours with a bag of tools, and that it was not a simple fix.  It was going to need proper test equipment, and it likely needed a lot of parts replaced.  The unit had major power supply issues keeping the motor and drive from engaging.

I told Jack & Ben that I knew where a used unit identical to the one Jack owned was located, and that I could likely obtain it to gather parts from.  The plan we discussed involved myself using the parts from the spare unit I obtained, to restore them, and then to bring them to Nashville and put them into Jack's jukebox later that year when I next visited.

In the mean time, a fellow collector and graphic artist by trade, Hawke (Daniel George) and I were discussing the jukebox and the adventure I was on to get it working for Jack.  During these discussions, a brilliant idea cropped up to not just fix Jack's jukebox, but to transform it into a unique Third Man Records jukebox. Hawke got busy mocking up a few ideas with his great Photoshop skills.

Here are a few of the mockup pics:

I sent these mock up pictures to Ben & Jack along with the idea that I would just restore the spare jukebox to look like whichever design Jack picked, and that I would bring it to TMR fully functional and swap it with Jack for his dead unit. They loved the idea and the project was underway.

The story from there is a long three-year journey of finding parts and countless hours of restoration consisting of electronic, mechanical, and cosmetic work.  There were a lot of stops and starts along the way resulting from my corporate day job, other small projects such as starting my own record label, and having a small amount of time searching for parts and waiting on others who helped in the process.

I have to say that Jack's patience was probably tested along the way, as it took me about a year longer to finish the project than I had previously anticipated. The project concluded this past week on Thursday June 20th, 2013, when I delivered the finished Jukebox to Jack.  What happens to it now, and how it gets used, is in his hands. All I know is the 48 year old jukebox should be fully functional for the next 50 years.

Jack's original jukebox had traveled from his house in Detroit to his home in Nashville, and then to TMR when it opened, where it has sat in a corner of a hallway, adjacent to the blue room, where performers had traveled through before their shows. Jack's dead jukebox went onto my trailer and made it back to North Carolina this weekend, where it is about to go under the same transformation to make a matching mate for it's counterpart at TMR.

Now, a little about the restoration...

This is the spare parts jukebox that I had told Jack about. It was a pretty solid unit, but wasn't working either. It had issues with its drive, picking up records, as well as a needed full electrical & mechanical restoration. It had spent most of it's life in a bar in Columbus OH, and I had purchased it off the retired bar owner who had it in his basement in storage for many years.

The original unit, when I started restoration on it, was in pretty rough shape to say the least.  I replaced over 60 electrical components in the unit along with countless adjustments, tuning, and cleaning and replacement parts. There were over 600 screws, nuts, and bolts that I had removed to totally strip the unit to individual pieces.

I was lucky, and I found a local cabinet maker who lived just 5 miles from me (Magic in Counters in Mocksville, NC) who completely recovered the cabinet in glossy black Formica, as well as repairing the beat up corners that most of these units seem to have.  

Then, just three miles from me, I found Landmark Coatings who were very excited to get to help on the project. They powder coated almost every metal part in the jukebox either black, or TMR yellow. Some parts I had to paint by hand, as you can tell by my TMR garbage can in the back of my shop.

I ordered genuine Fender Black Face Amplifier cloth from the Fender factory for $60/yard to cover the doors and top speaker grills. Jack & Swank (Soledad Brothers) both got a kick out of that when I told them about it...

The artwork was ordered from an on-line printing shop and is really just two large canvas stickers. I had to order a lot of parts from the UK related to the prices and buttons. At one point, my son and I spent 3 hours with our hands in a heavy bleach solution bleaching the buttons that had 45 years of bar smoke absorbed in them.

A new set of sapphire styluses were installed on the unit, which were near impossible to find. At this point, I was well over 100 hours into the jukebox...

Here are a few more pictures as it was starting to come together. My son Matthew was a real trooper throughout the project, as he was my "hold this", "turn that", and “pick that up" guy. It was a great experience for him, as he got to learn a lot about electronics and restoration of such equipment. 

Finally, it was time for the journey. I scheduled a time with Ben & Jack to deliver it on June 20th, 2013 at 1:00pm Nashvegas time. Here you can see a picture of the jukebox, lit up, before it was put on the truck (bottom left), on the trailer at my house (top left), backing it up into TMR's big blue door (top right), with myself, my two sons (Matthew, Michael), and my daughter's boyfriend, Clint unloading the unit. They all helped out a lot during the whole process. Oh yeah, it weighs 370 pounds BTW...

The jukebox now in the hands of Jack...

A picture of me showing Jack the inside (top left), picture of Blackwell testing the unit with a White Stripes record (top right), Picture of Ben and I with Jack's jukebox before loading it up (bottom left), and finally the unit being rolled into my basement today, awaiting the same transformation this Winter.  There will only be two of these in the world, that's for sure.

And finally, a signed Lightning Blunderbuss that Jack made out to my son for all his help on the jukebox and a COA from Ben on the jukebox I brought home.

Thanks to all those who helped out with the project including my family who put up with all the time I invested in it. It’s been one of the highlights of my vintage audio restoration and vinyl collecting hobbies to date. 

I hope you enjoyed the story,
Mark

THE END...


P.S. And just to show my confidence level in the restoration and quality of parts used, I leave you with this little video...