This is my 1973 Wurlitzer 1050. I happened to find this poor, beat up Wurlitzer 1050 for sale on alt.collecting.juke-boxes very inexpensively (Thanks Ron!) This is a hybrid box. The original Wurlitzer changer mechanism and amplifier had been removed and Rowe RI-2 guts were transplanted into it. I will say that whoever did the swap did a very good job. However, it did not work and the whole box needed a thorough going over. I proceeded to take the whole box apart, my first venture into the world of jukes ;-)
I knew right away that many parts were unsalvageable and would have to be replaced. I was able to rebuild the Rowe solid state preamps but the amp itself was not fixable... at least not cost effectively so I bought another amp from Bill Butterfield. The plastic pilasters, dome and dome casting were too damaged for repair. Thankfully Victory Glass has reproduced these pieces with the notable exception of the casting. For that they had reproduced the one from a Rock-Ola 1000, a later model copy of the 1050. It is a significantly different casting with a big "R" plugging up the middle. I took a chance thinking I could remove the "R" area and get it close to the Wurly part. The repro piece comes unchromed so I had little to lose by trying. It turned out very nicely! This then was sent off to Canada to CV Vacuum Platers. Chuck Vanderbyl does excellent vacuum deposition work, primarily for the auto restoration people and Hollywood movie props but he agreed to give this a whirl. Great job Chuck! Next I had to find a replacement memory control module and mechanism control module as the carousel would just spin and never stop, always reading 200 on the display. I couldn't find replacements that worked at a reasonable price and was told that Bruce Wentworth of A&B Jukebox Repair was the man when it came to repairing those proprietary Rowe modules. Bruce repaired the mechanism module and found the memory module to be good, I highly recommend sending both units to him to test together. It really saved a lot of guess work. Thanks Bruce!
I had to repaint the grill which really turned out perfectly, and I had plenty of basic repairs to make. The tonearm wires were shot so I ended up making my own wires from mini headphone wires. Excellent shielding and extremely flexible. Anyway, lots of little things like that needed work.
Finally, after a LOT of cleaning and almost as much money in parts as I paid for the whole box, I now have a beautiful (I know some people hate the 1050's ;-) working 45rpm jukebox rocking the house at weekend get-togethers. Everyone who sees and hears it loves it!
Many thanks to Jay Hennigan, Kendrick Reed, Bob Ellingson and so many others on a.c.j-b for all the help troubleshooting her, what a great group of people! And of course Kevin Fleming of Jack Rabbit Shipping for getting her to me in one piece, thanks Kev!