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1987 Rockola SOLD!
Wurlitzer
in N.Y. and Sonata in Mexico couldn't pull it off. It took Rockola
/ Chicago to do the 1050 justice. Some background information can be found
on our site for an original Wurlitzer 1050 we previously sold here.
In the past we have sold 1050's to American Top 40 Disc Jockey Casey Kasem
and one to Richard Carpenter for his sister Karen.
The
1050 from Wurlitzer was introduced in 1973 as the company was on the
verge of shuttering it operations in North America. It was a
nostalgic look back to the styles that cemented the Wurlitzer name
forever in history. It was reminiscent of the Paul Fuller
designs of the 1940s.
But
the 1050 had two strikes against it coming out of the chute. One
was the disastrous Statesman model 3400 of 1970 with defective micro
switches that plagued operators across the country and the second was
the fact that the 1050 sounded "tinny" and
"hollow" with its Astatic ceramic cartridge and nothing
could be done about it.
For
a twist, Wurlitzer sells the tooling to a Mexican company which
produces one of the worst jukeboxes ever made …The Sonata. (Junk) In
1986 things got tough for jukebox companies around the world.
Seeburg had introduced the first CD jukebox ever. That had
everybody scrambling to come out with a CD machine. Most of them
quickly installed home or car CD players inside their existing 45 rpm
machines by 1988.
During
the industry's engineering interim, Rockola acquired the tooling to
make the 1050 all over again. So while their engineers we're
putting together their first (disastrous) CD juke to be introduced in
1988, the company put their previous achievements into the third
version of the 1050.
In
1987 Rockola introduced yet another Nostalgia. It never caught
on. Duh! I mean this was the third time for a machine that
never happened in the first place. But
here's the catch: Most outside the jukebox industry don't
realize that during the 1970s Rockola made some of the best sounding,
most dependable yet simple jukeboxes of all time.
This
new Nostalgia had more selections, great sound (with its light
tracking Shure cartridge) and quality assembly. They even
installed a turnbuckle to offset the potential sagging of the long,
heavy front door. This jukebox was a near masterpiece, but dang
if there weren't too many other things causing Rockola to be nervous.
Wurlitzer,
by this time made exclusively in Germany, had to be laughing their
socks off at Rockola because at this same time Wurlitzer came out with
a near identical reproduction of the famous 1946 model 1015 Bubbler.
And this new German
Wurlitzer is a damn good juke.
Nobody
seems to know how many of the Rockola Nostalgia were ever produced,
but in 40 years I've only seen one and it was on the showroom floor of
the Rockola distributorship in Los Angeles. Even our resident
jukebox guru Warren Rowe admits to have never seen one. To say
the least, they're extremely rare. We
acquired this particular one from a lady up in Santa Clarita Valley
who purchased it brand new. She got "their" juke in the
divorce and hoped we'd find it a nice new home. When she said
they never played it, I took it with a grain of salt. It
had been setting for years un-played and wouldn't work when we bought
it. When we got it back to the shop I found the record transfer
mechanism stuck due to dried out lubricant causing a fuse to have
blown. A
bit of LPS-1 and it was up and running. I told the guys clean it
up, put in a few records
and run it a bit. After about 5 tunes and a little dusting they
told me they didn't think the machine was ever used. Upon
close examination I had to agree, but still needed to check the
computer for number of total plays. The computer still had both
factory seals on it and when we brought up the tallies, it showed #1
thru #10 to have been played 2 times each and the next dozen or so to
have only been played once each. This
machine could be considered "new". First off the total
play meter shows only 64 plays. The total plays is like the
speedometer on a new car. It can't be reset. In
comparison, when we rent a jukebox for a weekend party they put on
400. The
cash bag has never had a coin in it. The area where the wide
front door would normally sag and leave scrape marks is
flawless. We're showing lots of photos to indicate how
immaculate this jukebox is.
Also
the area where customers normally rest their sweaty palms and wear the
brown molding on either side of the title strip holders is
perfect. The back of the cabinet is perfect. The insides
are spotless. AND, it works great and sounds wonderful.
Yet
in our infinite attempt to improve on every jukebox we encounter, we
only made one modification to this one. On the upper inside area
where the record playing mechanism sets, the deck was painted a faint
silver. We applied a commercial grade of metallic looking vinyl
over it that just seems to top it off perfectly. In
the photos you'll see the 'tons' of original factory paperwork that
comes with it. In addition, we'll fill it up with great hit
tunes and title strips.
So if you'd like the bragging rights of owning one of the rarest jukes alive ……. here it is. If this jukebox doesn't light up your room, you must live in a ball park or Emergency Room.
We ship worldwide and to insure proper care we crate the jukeboxes ourselves. Call us with your shipping address and we'll get you a competitive shipping/insurance quote (prices vary according to value and destination), unless you'd like to pick it up or have us deliver it in the Southern California area. Our experience in servicing jukeboxes bought elsewhere through the Internet is that many sustain some kind of damage in transport. When you buy a jukebox from us we make sure the components inside are properly secured. In some cases we can send you detailed photos and instructions on how to unpack the unit and get it up and running.
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