In article ,
(Fred) wrote:

I'd love to hear people's experiences with Rockolas (especially the
1448 and similar models). All things being equal (in terms of
condition) is a Seeburg R worth more than a Rockola 1448?

I'd go for the R. Seeburgs are better on records, more robust, and
sound better. I know the Rock-Ola crowd will hang me, but I've yet to
hear a 40's 50's early 60's Rock-Ola that didn't sound like crap.
seeburgs can be all over the place (IMHO the A, B and C sound lousy
too), but the R is a nice box. Rock-Olas look nice, but the DC motor
thing gets annoying, they're prone to 'thumpers' if the drive wheel goes
flat, I've heard the pinbanks don't really work well, and they're spotty
on records, though I can't see why they'd be any harsher than any other
machine, if setup right.

The clincher is Seeburg remote equipment is available everywhere, and if
you like wallboxes, that's a plus. Seeburgs can be a real bear to work
on, though, and there's a LOT of adjustments to go over, and it takes a
lot of time to get them just right. They're a VERY tight mech, really
an acomplishment in miniature engineering. A 50's Seeburg mech makes
everything else from the era look crude. I wonder if the 'tech appeal'
of them helped sell them origionally, I've heard they were very
profitable, but also expensive machines...

Of course, if you want sound quality, you want an AMI F or G, or the
ever popular H/I/J/K/whatever machines. Or a Conti. The three cone
Wurlitzer sound system's nice, but IMHO, an AMI F will blow a Cobra
Wurlizter out the door. And you can stick an NP/AC cartridge on them
and they're good on stereo records then, but you might wanna tone down
the top end (which is hot on that amp as it is - I'm guessing they go up
higher than most juke amps?). JBC had an article about this the other
month.