1949 Seeburg
78 - RPM Jukebox
Model "A"
100 Selections
78 - RPM Jukebox
Model "A"
100 Selections
First of all this is, hands down, the best sounding 78 rpm jukebox ever made. It had been in development for nearly 8 years. Star Title Strip Company of Pittsburgh had already begun printing the new double strips for the "A" by 1947. Needless to say this is the jukebox that revolutionized the industry.
Here's my take on this jukebox and the record industry and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Before the 1920s phonograph records were engineered to sound good on a crank up Victrola. Remember there were no radio stations until the1920s.
But by the mid 1920s just about all of America could hear music on a radio. Yet no matter how good a 78 rpm record sounded in the control booth of a radio station, it still was going to be heard thru either a tiny speaker in a table radio or a large 15-inch full range one in a floor model.
Eventually Paul Galvin introduced in 1930 Motorola radios for cars. Now the recording engineer was up against the dilemma of trying to make tunes sound good coming from small and large home radios and those tiny little oval speakers in dashboards.
Although Americans invented jukeboxes at the turn of the 20th century, their sound systems were quite primitive until into the 1930s. But by the 1940s jukes were becoming a powerful force for demonstrating new music to the public.
Even with a limited array of artists on a handful of labels, the public's appetite became insatiable. Jukeboxes were showing up at bars, lounges, restaurants, U.S.O. halls and even drug stores.
It didn't take long for record companies to realize the marketing possibilities of "jukes". Where better to hear your favorite new artist's newest hit but on a jukebox.
All the public had to do is hear a tune sound great on a jukebox for them to go out and buy the record. It didn't matter what it sounded like after they bought it. The sale was done and the jukebox did it!
With improved jukebox amplifiers and cartridges, recording engineers worked hand in hand with the industry leaders in developing records that sounded good on jukes.
From the beginning, jukes were made large so a customer walking into an establishment would spot it immediately. The big cabinets made for excellent acoustic devises or speaker enclosures.
Now record companies could engineer records with a standard in mind. That of sounding good coming out of a 15-inch jukebox speaker. The jukebox became their best salesmen.
To continue with my theory, it just stands to reason that this marriage of recording engineers and jukebox manufacturers would be at it's peak, at least for 78 rpm, in the years before and just after 45 rpm came along in 1949. Thus I believe tunes produced between 1940 and 1959 were intended to sound their best emitted from a jukebox.
(Motown records of the 60s and Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings were intended to sound their best in mono car radios.)
To hear the original 78 rpm RCA version of Elvis Presley's monster 1956 hit "Don't Be Cruel" or even Glen Miller's "In the Mood" on a Seeburg "A" can be breath taking. You'd be blown away by the fullness of sound coming from the little black Pickering cartridge through a 16 watt push-pull tube type amplifier out a 15-inch full range speaker inside a massive wooden cabinet. All the components were "tuned" with each other.
It's how '40s big band and early rock and roll was meant to sound. It's absolutely amazing and no other means of reproduction comes any where near matching it. As far as I'm concerned, the M-100 A is the best sounding 78 rpm jukebox in the world.
On a side note: Seeburg took essentially the same amp, cartridge and 15-inch speaker and installed it in the worlds first 45 rpm jukebox, the M-100 B in 1951. Although the only difference was the speed of the record and the size of the cabinet, the "B" only sounds half as good as the "A".
Remember, the faster the record spins, the better it sounds. So L.P. versions of early Rock and Roll at 33 1/3 rpm leave a lot to be desired compared to a 78 rpm juke. "Rock Around the Clock" was produced before "HI-FI" came along. By the way I'm a radio engineer with a "First-Class" ticket, the highest broadcast license the FCC issues.
Here's another side story: Shortly after starting JUKEBOXES UNLIMITED ® in Phoenix AZ, a guy calls me and asks if I buy 78 rpm jukes. He had 25 "A"s in a shed behind his hair saloon in Mesa (a city outside Phoenix). He wanted to jump on the bandwagon of making tons of coins from jukeboxes, so he invested in 25 brand new "A"s at the end of 1948.
He placed the first one in a little Italian restaurant on 7th street near downtown Phoenix called the Blue Grotto. By 1951 the Seeburg "B" model playing the new 45 rpm records came along and made his "A"s obsolete.
He never placed another one on location again. So in 1971 I bought them all including the one from the Blue Grotto for $25 each. I should be shot, huh?
So you should buy this wonderful music machine and breakout the old Rock and Roll 78s. Does anybody still know how to "Bop"? You should hear Gene Vincent’s "Be-Bop-A-Lula" on an "A". And what’s also cool about an "A" is you can hear "Woman Love" on the other side without flipping the record over.
Here's my take on this jukebox and the record industry and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Before the 1920s phonograph records were engineered to sound good on a crank up Victrola. Remember there were no radio stations until the1920s.
But by the mid 1920s just about all of America could hear music on a radio. Yet no matter how good a 78 rpm record sounded in the control booth of a radio station, it still was going to be heard thru either a tiny speaker in a table radio or a large 15-inch full range one in a floor model.
Eventually Paul Galvin introduced in 1930 Motorola radios for cars. Now the recording engineer was up against the dilemma of trying to make tunes sound good coming from small and large home radios and those tiny little oval speakers in dashboards.
Although Americans invented jukeboxes at the turn of the 20th century, their sound systems were quite primitive until into the 1930s. But by the 1940s jukes were becoming a powerful force for demonstrating new music to the public.
Even with a limited array of artists on a handful of labels, the public's appetite became insatiable. Jukeboxes were showing up at bars, lounges, restaurants, U.S.O. halls and even drug stores.
It didn't take long for record companies to realize the marketing possibilities of "jukes". Where better to hear your favorite new artist's newest hit but on a jukebox.
All the public had to do is hear a tune sound great on a jukebox for them to go out and buy the record. It didn't matter what it sounded like after they bought it. The sale was done and the jukebox did it!
With improved jukebox amplifiers and cartridges, recording engineers worked hand in hand with the industry leaders in developing records that sounded good on jukes.
From the beginning, jukes were made large so a customer walking into an establishment would spot it immediately. The big cabinets made for excellent acoustic devises or speaker enclosures.
Now record companies could engineer records with a standard in mind. That of sounding good coming out of a 15-inch jukebox speaker. The jukebox became their best salesmen.
To continue with my theory, it just stands to reason that this marriage of recording engineers and jukebox manufacturers would be at it's peak, at least for 78 rpm, in the years before and just after 45 rpm came along in 1949. Thus I believe tunes produced between 1940 and 1959 were intended to sound their best emitted from a jukebox.
(Motown records of the 60s and Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings were intended to sound their best in mono car radios.)
To hear the original 78 rpm RCA version of Elvis Presley's monster 1956 hit "Don't Be Cruel" or even Glen Miller's "In the Mood" on a Seeburg "A" can be breath taking. You'd be blown away by the fullness of sound coming from the little black Pickering cartridge through a 16 watt push-pull tube type amplifier out a 15-inch full range speaker inside a massive wooden cabinet. All the components were "tuned" with each other.
It's how '40s big band and early rock and roll was meant to sound. It's absolutely amazing and no other means of reproduction comes any where near matching it. As far as I'm concerned, the M-100 A is the best sounding 78 rpm jukebox in the world.
On a side note: Seeburg took essentially the same amp, cartridge and 15-inch speaker and installed it in the worlds first 45 rpm jukebox, the M-100 B in 1951. Although the only difference was the speed of the record and the size of the cabinet, the "B" only sounds half as good as the "A".
Remember, the faster the record spins, the better it sounds. So L.P. versions of early Rock and Roll at 33 1/3 rpm leave a lot to be desired compared to a 78 rpm juke. "Rock Around the Clock" was produced before "HI-FI" came along. By the way I'm a radio engineer with a "First-Class" ticket, the highest broadcast license the FCC issues.
Here's another side story: Shortly after starting JUKEBOXES UNLIMITED ® in Phoenix AZ, a guy calls me and asks if I buy 78 rpm jukes. He had 25 "A"s in a shed behind his hair saloon in Mesa (a city outside Phoenix). He wanted to jump on the bandwagon of making tons of coins from jukeboxes, so he invested in 25 brand new "A"s at the end of 1948.
He placed the first one in a little Italian restaurant on 7th street near downtown Phoenix called the Blue Grotto. By 1951 the Seeburg "B" model playing the new 45 rpm records came along and made his "A"s obsolete.
He never placed another one on location again. So in 1971 I bought them all including the one from the Blue Grotto for $25 each. I should be shot, huh?
So you should buy this wonderful music machine and breakout the old Rock and Roll 78s. Does anybody still know how to "Bop"? You should hear Gene Vincent’s "Be-Bop-A-Lula" on an "A". And what’s also cool about an "A" is you can hear "Woman Love" on the other side without flipping the record over.
