I hope it is OK for me to call him a friend. Actually Gary is a friend of Chris and Connie, and I got introduced through them. But he has now been out to my place in Nordegg a couple of times, and we have had some good visits, so I hope he considers me at least a casual friend. Gary is originally from Manitoba, and back in the day, together with his father, they ran arcades, and serviced coin operated amusements. Gary's Dad used to be a distributor for Rockola Jukeboxes. Gary is the Go-To guy in western Canada for mechanical pinball machines. He is one of the last, and best technicians left that can still work on this stuff. He lives in Lake Louise, and has been working for Parks Canada. So it is not that big a stretch for me to get him to come out to Nordegg and restore my old Rockola.
My brother Shawn ended up spotting this at a garage sale and I managed to pick it up for 250 bucks. She has a bunch of miles on her, and has seen a little rough handling, and poor storage... but there is hope.
Gary came out a couple of months ago and had a look it. It was obvious to him that the needle from the tone arm was missing, and he felt that the cartridge was suspect. He steered me towards a place in Florida called Jukeboxneedles.com.... and I was able to order the parts I needed. During his first visit we were able to determine that the mechanics of the machine were functioning, though they needed a little TLC. We had no way to test the audio components without a needle.
The parts that I ordered arrived back in August, so I arranged for Gary to come out to Nordegg over the Labor Day long weekend. He graciously agreed, and came for a visit with his daughter, and his two dogs. We had a great visit together and spent a couple of days hanging out. His daughter Kalyna hit it off with Ryan and Braeden and they did a bunch of stuff together. Meanwhile Gary and I... mostly Gary... tackeld the Rockola. The old wires to the cartridge... now probably 50+ years old, are as fine as a human hair, and the coating is very brittle. Gary managed to remove the old cartridge, strip back those ancient wires, and solder in the new cartridge. We gave it a test drive, and sure enough, after the old tube amp warmed up, the speakers blasted an old Springsteen 45.
With confirmation that the audio system is functional we were encouraged and moved on to the other components. Gary removed a couple of motors and took them back to Lake Louise to clean and rebuild. We know that the mechanical stuff works too... because we tested it... but it all needs a little cleaning. lubrication and adjustment. So at some point in the next month or two, when Gary has a little time, he will make a return visit to Nordegg and we will dive into the rest of the rebuild.
So far I've only invested the intial 250 bucks, plus about 75 more for the cartridge and needle. I've paid Gary a little for his time so far, but it has not been significant. It appears that we will be able to get this unit up and running within the budget that I initially had in mind. I'm really looking forward to this, and have a bunch of 45's from my teens that I can load into it. It will be a great addition to our retro themed guest cottage.
Sadly the glass is broken on the top of the Rockola. I will have to search and see if I can find a replacement. If not, I will have to get a new piece of glass cut, and then figure out some way to display the list of singles.
No comments:
Post a Comment