1939 Rock-ola Luxury Lightup Jukebox Tour......Lots of Good Music 

Thanks so much, R1. I wish I did too :)

Thanks, Neil.

Yes, indeed, Neil :)

Quite so, Wheezer. I think the Rockola player mechanism is the simplest and best of the "Big 3" jukebox companies.

Glad you like it, F86. I know you are a blues afficionado :)

That's great news, Pinbret. I'm glad you found the video to be inspirational :)) Good luck on your new project !!!

Thanks for the interesting historical facts, Greg.

+SiliconSet You're welcome, SS :)

Indeed, Richard :)

It's actually rather light in weight compared to the Wurlitzers and Seeburgs, but the huge catalin plastics make it appear bulky.

You're welcome, BT. The differences between Rock-ola and Wurlitzer are definitely quite apparent.....yet they both achieve the same goal. To me, simple is better, but you can't argue with Wurlitzer's great success. Thanks for watching !!!

Greetings, SW. The old Rock-ola's don't get much respect, nor do they command the prices of the Wurlitzers, but they are really great jukeboxes with a very basic, reliable player mechanism, huge catalin plastics, and an excellent sound system. I'm glad you liked it :)

Yes, indeed, the Rock-ola plastics are among the largest found in jukeboxes and do have interesting swirls and graining. Between the motor(s), incandescent lights, tubes and amplifier, etc. vintage jukeboxes could definitely heat up a room.

+Ed Liss You're welcome, Ed. The bass response is excellent. I counter-weighted the tone arm and modified it to accept an Astatic 51-2 cartridge, then boosted the amp input impedance to around 1 Meg.

Thanks so much, Ron. I'm glad you enjoyed it.....:))

Uncle Doug I am also interested in the layouts of the enclosures and the number of valves in the amp and the amp layout, I'm trying to get the turret board with the pins to hand wire my own amp.

I generally describe electronic details of the jukebox sound systems just for folks (like us) who find this interesting. You will also find a lot of helpful info in my homemade amp videos (i.e. Bassman, Model 26, Vibro-Champ, etc.) Good luck with your project, Ron.

Greetings to you too, BB. You ask a good question. For each quarter, the credit wheel (a metal gear with about 25 teeth that resembles a coarse saw blade) would advance 5 teeth. Since the wheel has 25 teeth total, it could handle 5 quarters in rapid succession. If you dropped in a sixth quarter, you would not receive credit for it. The jukebox then plays once for each advanced tooth. For each record it plays, the credit wheel is backed up one tooth until it gets back to starting position and the jukebox turns off.

Uncle Doug Thanks, I suspected that there was an upper limit because who would put in more money than there are songs to choose? And $1.25 was probably worth a lot more then too making it unlikely that anyone would feed in that sixth coin.

One other consideration is that there are only 20 selections, so by the time even 4 quarters had been inserted in the slot, all of the selector buttons would have been pushed in. There would be no incentive to put in any more money.

Uncle Doug Right you are. I had just come from watching your tour of the Wurlitzer 24 and had 24 selections in my head. I'm a gear head from way back. Anything that meshes, spins or actuates fascinates me, as do things that perform in sequence. I've messed around with old Japanese Pachinko machines, the non-powered mechanical kind, they're wonders of balanced forces. Mostly though I like cars. You sure have an interesting hobby. My dad taught electronics and he was always trying to get me interested in circuit boards and wiring diagrams but I have always been more interested in cars. He would love your site.

Since you are electro-mechanically inclined, BB, please check out this video: Homemade DeArmond Electromechanical Tremolo from Scrap Parts I think you might get a kick out of it :) Thanks for watching and for your input......

Rockola (unhyphenated) is actually the name of the man who owned and ran the company (David C. Rockola). Any semblance to "Rock and Roll" is purely coincidental :))) The amp is totally off between plays. The player mechanism takes sufficient time for the tubes to warm up to operating voltages before the needle hits the record. There is no quick-start (9.6V) relay in this model, as there was in Wurlitzers and more modern Rock-ola's, yet it seems to function well without one.

The Rockola name had nothing to do with rock & roll. R&R came many decades later. However, the influence of RO was so great in Latin America that the dictionary term for "jukebox" is "Rockola." RO's were extremely reliable and durable. If you ever have the opportunity to break one down to its skeleton, as some of the models in the 1930's, you can see the quality of craftmanship that was the norm for them. I have 4 Rock-olas in my collection, all restored to museum-quality standards; a 1937 Rhythm King; 1947 model 1426 Marble-glo; 1960 200 selection Tempo II (model 1485); and a 1963 Model 408 Rhapsody. All have outstanding sound quality. David Rockola was a brilliant man with a unique vision -- a vision that lasted until his death at age 96, still running his own company. He died in 1993. But his name lives on... and rightly so.

The very first Rock-ola jukebox was the Model 35 made in 1935. It was placed on the Queen Mary cruise ship in 1935 on her maiden voyage. The name Rock-ola had absolutely nothing to do with the term "rock & roll" which came many decades later. The founder's name was David Cullen Rock-ola, a Canadian immigrant from Verdun, Manitoba, Canada. Rock-ola died at the ripe old age of 96 in 1993, still at the helm of his own company. In 1992, Glenn Streeter purchased the Rock-ola jukebox name and it is a thriving business today, completely transformed into the latest computer and Internet technology. I have several restored vintage Rock-olas -- a 1947 model 1426, a 1960 Tempo II 200-selection unit, and a 1963 Rhapsody, the model 408. Rock-ola machines in the late 50's and early '60's had sensational sound quality. They typically used 2 Jensen 12" woofers along with one or more (the 408 had 6) high efficiency fluted horn speakers. The tube stereo amp in the 408 and the Tempo II could capture any frequency from 20 to 60,000 cycles or Hz on the sound spectrum.That is an incredible range, since most people can't hear anything beyond 8000Hz or so. So why did manufacturers design amps that exceeded human hearing capacity? Well, as it turns out, the higher the frequency range the less total harmonic distortion(THD). Most of these models were designed to blast at full volume(if you dared) with less than 3% THD. That is an incredible engineering feat -- both Rock-ola and Seeburg jukeboxes during this era had "off the chart" fidelity. These units were the holy grail of superb analog music...

Thanks for all the additional information, Ed.

I'm a member of the AHJBS (American Historic Juke Box Society) and in our possession is a 1935 Rockola Model A. Ed, if I'm not mistaken David C. started out manufacturing penny scales. I had one a few years ago.

There is a fellow named Bill Butterfield in California who used to have all sorts of parts for jukeboxes. You might give him a try.

I used an Astatic 51-2 cartridge in this one, Peter. You may be able to order a needle or cartridge from Victory Glass Co. in Des Moines, Iowa.

Greetings, Boots. No, the backlit panels are Catalin Plastic. It was a revolutionary catalyzed material developed back in the late 1930's and very interesting to read about.....try a Google search. Re the selection process, the selector starts at the top for each selection and simply drops, due to gravity, until it hits a pin connected to the push button that was pushed in. Before it plays the record, it cancels the pin by pushing it outward to "neutral" position. After the record is played, the selector returns to the top position and drops down to the next pin that was pushed in, or simply waits until another coin is put in the slot and another selection is made. The coins are sent into one of three different channels depending on if the coin is a nickle, dime, or quarter. The nickle channel has one credit switch, the dime has two, and the quarter has five. Each credit switch that is momentarily closed by the passing coin makes the jukebox play one record.

I understand that bakelite is a close cousin to catalin. Difference is that catalin has a renewable surface. Bakelite is not. One observation (I have one of these jewels, BTW) is that the selection process is rather primitive and hokey. You have to push in the large "cancel" button before making any selections and you have to do this BEFORE dropping a coin into the slot. There's even an instruction panel that tells you the steps (3 of them) for making a selection. The process is completely un-intuitive. Here's the problem with this: I come along and select five tunes, drop in a quarter and head back to the bar to enjoy my beer and tunes. You come along and push in the cancel button (because that's what the instructions tell you to do) and you cancel my remaining selections!! Your selections now will play with my quarter!! Grrrrr. Thankfully, David Rockola changed this situation in subsequent machines... even in the 1939 Deluxe version of the Standard.

You make a good point, Wheezer. I can see where the selector system might lead to all sorts of barroom brawls. Thank heavens for the more modern selectors systems that had an un-cancellable "memory".

Thanks. I know I've asked the same question on your other posts. I get it. So simple, but I could never work it out. Gosh these things just bring tears to my eyes.

Thanks for watching and commenting, Pinbret.

+mgrama The 1426 Rockola has an electric-selection mechanism which allows you to insert coins and THEN select your tunes. It won't play until you make your record selection. The 1939 Rockola is a mechanical-select jukebox, in which you have to make your selections first, and THEN insert the money. Once you insert the coin, the 1939 will start looking for a record to play, whether you have made any selections or not.

excellent, thank you very much for answering. obviously my 1426 has a problem. just plug it into the wall select one . and when a record ends another begins without selecting it . tnks very much

It's not functioning properly, MG. I hope you can get it straightened out. Good luck.

+Uncle Doug tnks very much. it's hard without diagrams. or manuals. haha tnks

You can order an illustrated service manual from Victory Glass Co. in Des Moines, Iowa.

Yes, it turns a much darker color, particularly if it is white or yellow to begin with. Yellow catalin turns orange-brown with age. It can be sanded and polished back to the original bright yellow color, but will turn dark again in a few years. It's not necessarily due to sunlight, but probably caused by chemical changes within the catalin over time.

Uncle Doug Thank you sir, very much.

Uncle Doug Yup, you are correct. I had my W800 restored by Glenn Streeter in 1983. The pilasters were a beautiful milky white and you could see the swirls inside the Catalin mold. Beautiful. In 2000 I had them done again but was told that would be the last time. 14 years later they are an off-white, not puke orange like most of them are after some time. All in all, the W800 is a beautiful machine.

and those changes in color are part of the character of an original jukebox. One of my favorite Wurlitzers the model 750, often has replacement plastics as the originals are broken up top. (Darn right handed drunks in the bar used to pound on them when their nickel was stuck). The new plastics are a great replacement product, but boy are they white. They don't really look as good as a nice original set of plastics.

Greetings, Wheezer. Brad and I have been good friends for about 30 years. Since this is the Standard model, I don't believe it had the heat-driven color cylinders. My '39 Countertop Rockola did, however, and they were pretty snazzy. Thanks for the input.

Robert Cachur I watched the video, Bob, and must admit that the color cylinders really do add a lot to the appeal of the jukebox. I may well have to get a pair from Brad. Thanks for the input :)

Sorry to hear it.

As I said before, I don't publicly post business discussions. Please inquire by private message.

how much was it sold for?

I think old Moon is dealing in double entendre, as did so many blues performers.....and it make me like it all the more. :)

You've got me pondering the "Moon" meaning now...lol...:-0

God only knows where he's "laying pipe" :)

lmao! True, but it sure seems he's laying a lot of it!

It makes you wonder why he has "the blues".....that much action should make you happy :))