I'm new to stereo2go but not to other places like Tapeheads. My background is hardware design originally but software for most of my career. I retired a few years ago and decided to restore a Pioneer Reel to Reel Deck (RT-702). Well, that led to other decks like Akai GX-77 and then on to Sony TC-D5M cassette decks. I have restored 3 of those. Anyway, I recently decided to try my hand at a Pro Walkman, specifically the WM-D6C and that is what brought me here. So far I am hugely impressed by the helpful folks on the Walkman forums and the knowledge they share. Hopefully I can get involved too.
My main audio obsession is my 1986 Rowe/AMI R90 jukebox. I love this thing. Have about 23000 45's, though id say only about 2000 unique ones, a lot of copies.
That's a lot of 45's! When one of the inlaws passed on years ago I said grab any audio which included about 60 45's that would have been tossed out. They were worth a small fortune but there were two copies of a real 60's garage band that were going for $150/ea at the time, I don't sell much stuff but I moved those right away to a collector. Boyeen, is your Pioneer an RT-707? I'm not familar with the 702 but I have the ultra cool 707 sitting in the rack behind me and have a RT-1020L out in the shop. I lusted after the Pioneers but they were hard to find, AKAI, Sony and TEAC used to be a little more common around here.
Yeah when i got the jukebox (I actually got 2 - I kept the "Golden 90" and gave the Sapphire 90 to my brother) it was part of the deal to take the 125 boxes of 45s. They came from local bars and the 45s were in rotating with probably 100 jukeboxes by the guy that owned them. My Golden 90 came from a bowling alley about 30 miles from where i live. I'm not sure where the Sapphire 90 originally was located, but somewhere near here. One of the neatest things about the boxes, is that the 45 sleeves often have writing on them, the bar, restaurant, bowling alley, etc.. where that 45 (or the one in the sleeve before it) came from. They're like historical documents, with names of establishments Long Gone. I've been keeping a stack of them with each new place i find written on them. I'm up to about 25 different places now. Kind of neat.
Hi Boyeen, I live in Bellevue. I just recently got signed up here, lots of good information. I have about 25-30 cassette players, between consoles, boomboxes and Walkmans. I also have working 8 track and Reel to Reel players. And 25 record players spanning the decades from 1907 to 1986, and they all work. I take them out for public presentations, called The Puget Sound Turntable Roadshow. I have a Walkman D-3 I've had since new.
I won't get my facts totally right, but for sometime the jukebox industry really supported the 45rpm format, makes sense. They had to restock the jukes with the latest hits, just like a pop radio station never overplays a song. So there was a lot of churn. Do you know how often a juke might get updates back in the jukebox heyday? And I wonder if someone owned and operated 100, if some machines in more high profile spots got the freshest stuff, and the operator moved some of the stuff over to other machines to get a little more action from the 45s, before they became surplus.
There was a arcade distributor by one of my jobs, around 2002 they were clearing out their stock of 45's, there must have been 1000's of them, wonder how many they ended tossing out. I have to believe when they had a route, it was up to the distributor to put in whatever would make the most money followed by the classics that appealed to that bar's crowd whenever they came and emptied the coin box.
Sorry, life got busy for a few days. I am in awe guys, it s so fun to meet you. It is so interesting to see what people get enthusiastic about. I would LOVE to have a jukebox for instance, I have fond memories of years gone by. What a fascinating piece of tech internally too I bet.
From what I have found out here, twice a month they'd make the rounds and check the computers inside them to see what hasn't been playing and take them out to put in the new stuff. Even my '86 jukebox has a 20 or 25 (can't remember) top list that it remembers as long as the battery is good. As well as figuring how much cash each takes in, I imagine those got priority. The coin slot works fine in mine, but my dollar bill mech is flaky. I took it out and put in a Logo cover (there on the right, my picture was when i took it out and it's just a white hole). I like the dark Logo better than the Bill Unit anyway.
