1953 Rockola jukebox amplifier test and power supply repair

by admin on 15. Jun, 2010 in Power Supply Repair

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It works good but for some reason the bass isn’t quite as strong as I might like. I’ll try it next with the original field coil speaker in the jukebox.

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25 Responses to “1953 Rockola jukebox amplifier test and power supply repair”

  1. THEtechknight 15. Jun, 2010 at 7:13 am #

    its not the strongest amplifier in the world, so your gonna have some distortion no matter what. my push-pull EL34 amp has distortion with extreme base/volume.

  2. windoes98se 15. Jun, 2010 at 7:22 am #

    nice power suply restoration , you have a good taist in music it sems

  3. manyvideoinerests 15. Jun, 2010 at 7:52 am #

    Without a doubt! I would have thought that had come out sooner.

  4. JeffN727 15. Jun, 2010 at 8:17 am #

    “Operator” by Midnight Star. From the LP: “Planetary Invasion”. Came out in 1984. Great 80’s dance funk / R&B.

  5. JeffN727 15. Jun, 2010 at 9:02 am #

    First song was “Operator” by Midnight Star. Got it spinning right now.
    Second song was “Barracuda” by Heart.

  6. hotgta 15. Jun, 2010 at 9:25 am #

    what’s the name of last song??

  7. Trance88 15. Jun, 2010 at 10:19 am #

    Awesome stuff! Too bad you had to replace so much to keep it working as it should.

  8. VideoMagician77 15. Jun, 2010 at 11:13 am #

    This is what are computers will look like compared to computers 56 years from now. I feel primitive writing this lol.

  9. dudleythemoose 15. Jun, 2010 at 11:37 am #

    Barracuda!

    You have a pretty sweet gig, having all that stuff at your disposal. Lucky!

  10. Vinylrecordsneverdie 15. Jun, 2010 at 12:04 pm #

    Progress looking good!

  11. manyvideoinerests 15. Jun, 2010 at 12:52 pm #

    Nifty! I think I remember seeing something like that at a restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan back in the early 80’s. What was the name of that first song though, and what year did it come out?

  12. 029622558 15. Jun, 2010 at 1:35 pm #

    what the name of first song?

  13. KT88seamp 15. Jun, 2010 at 2:14 pm #

    Yet another reason to replace them :)

  14. Maxxarcade 15. Jun, 2010 at 2:15 pm #

    Selenium rectifiers are highly toxic when they burn up.

  15. spannerworks1 15. Jun, 2010 at 2:40 pm #

    Great video for me I always have a lot of respect for vintage audio so I guess I am more forgiving – which shows in your experience, skills and expertise.

    Regards

    Richard UK

  16. weasel2htm 15. Jun, 2010 at 3:20 pm #

    I have a Pioneer SX-1250, while bass is not a problem, I get a snapping out of the right channel sometimes, considering the SX-1250 is currently 33 years old, I’m guessing that new caps in anything that age can’t hurt, right Chad?

  17. AllAmericanFiveRadio 15. Jun, 2010 at 3:37 pm #

    Very good advice and information. When I was in H.S. I use to hang around a radio/TV repair shop. The guy running it use to always tell me that the best tube tester was a known good tube.
    After work on items like this, tube amps and 70s transistor amps, and I walk into an audio store today, most everything looks like junk.

  18. maynardcat 15. Jun, 2010 at 3:50 pm #

    I am glad I was of some help, I did a similar thing when testing an amp I had worked on.

  19. raymondleeleggs 15. Jun, 2010 at 4:24 pm #

    Why replace the rectifier?

  20. retrochad 15. Jun, 2010 at 4:28 pm #

    Yes I think youre exactly right. When the bass control was turned down on the Rockola there was less distortion. It must have been clipping on the input stage.

  21. retrochad 15. Jun, 2010 at 5:02 pm #

    You’re right, it does…I am going to hook up the amp in the jukebox with the volume control and use a solid state phono preamp for a better test.

  22. maynardcat 15. Jun, 2010 at 5:05 pm #

    Great video I like your explanation of the work you are doing. The new tubes had a much cleaner sound on the midrange and highs. It sounds like the McIntosh is overloading the phono input stage. When driving the phono input with the McIntosh, would that not be doubling up and overloading the RockOla with it’s own built in tone controls. I thought you would have to bypass the tone controls in the RockOla, and use it as a straight amp relying on the McIntosh only for increase in the bass

  23. wildbilltexas 15. Jun, 2010 at 5:23 pm #

    Sounds to me like you’re overdriving the amp’s input with the pre-amp.

  24. retrochad 15. Jun, 2010 at 5:40 pm #

    I have tried to repair windings in fan motors but haven’t had luck as there often seem to be other shorts caused by burned enamel on the wires…I have just replaced the motors with good used ones when I have had burned ones. You can get motors rewound but I think it’s quite expensive.

  25. retrochad 15. Jun, 2010 at 6:23 pm #

    Usually I have found poor bass and distortion problems in solid state amps caused by bad electrolytic capacitors.

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