I may be getting a jukebox

[radiotvnut]

For years, I've wanted an older vacuum tube jukebox with a visible record mechanism. Lack of space and lack of money have prevented that from happening. It seems like most people around here want hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for beat-to-heck older boxes or even more modern boxes that have little interest.

Lately, a friend put me on to someone who has an old Rock-Ola box; but, no one can tell me anything concrete about it. My friend said he thinks it has a visible mechanism; but, "thinks" is not quite good enough. He did tell me that the owner said that it still had records and would load selections; but, the audio output was very weak. The owner said they'd take $100 for it like it is.

I talked to the owner over the phone and all they could tell me is that it's a Rock-Ola, looks like "the ones that were in the honky tonk's many years aog", and they think it uses tubes. I didn't want to ask a bunch of questions because I was afraid that might make a light go off and then the price would go up. And, from all the years of buying radios, I know not to trust what they tell you over the phone. I've heard claims from owners that would leave one to believe that I'd be getting an old tube radio; only to arrive and find some junk clock radio from the '70's.

The person that has the jukebox lives about 35 miles away and I'm trying to set up a time to look at it. Hopefully, it will be something I like; but, I've got a feeling that it will be some ugly solid state model from later years.

I was looking at youtube videos of various Rock-Ola boxes and there is a Rock-Ola princess from around '62 that several people have. This model still uses tubes and has a visible mechanism. Then, there are some later models from the '65-'67 time period that have a small window where the turntable platter can be seen. I think these models still use tubes.

Anyway, wish me luck.