Jukebox Restoration

I love to fix things – especially old mechanical things. The only problem is that I don’t know what I’m doing. So, I need to find objects that are broken just the right amount. Broken too much, and there’s no chance that I can fix it. Not broken enough, and it’s no fun to fix. Well, when I found this 1969 Rockola Princess Jukebox it was the perfect amount of broken.

When I bought the jukebox, all I knew was that the lights worked. My plan was to goof around inside, see if I could figure out how it worked, and worst case scenario, it would make a cool decoration (maybe with a bluetooth speaker inside to play music). As I continued to fiddle, clean the components, and flick switches, the juke box slowly came back to life. My only real innovation was to bypass the broken tube amp and use the guts of a $30 record player instead. The end result speaks for itself.