What a difference a day's work can make for an L100.

[wilitrun]

Hi all,
Thought I'd share a comeback story rather than ask another help question.
This L100 has been languishing in an unheated attic space for many years and I walked by it many times over the past month while salvaging various jukeboxes and parts from a retired operator. I came back one day last week to see it on the apron of the warehouse getting ready to be loaded up for a landfill trip and decided to buy it and bring it home.
After cleaning it up and deciding to fix it, I went out on a limb and contacted another seller on Marketplace who has been posting ads for jukes over the years and happened to have an identical model up for sale, to see if he had any spare parts. Turned out he had a partial cabinet with the missing glass and upper cabinet lid I needed, and he was kind enough to give me a tour of his workshop and private collection while I was there picking it up. The last photo here is after one day of teardown, cleaning, polishing, and partial reassembly using some parts from the donor cabinet. I now have an aesthetically complete L100 with an investment of about 15 hours labour and $300CAD. I'm guessing another five hours will get the cabinet fully assembled. 
I still have to solve for an empty lower cabinet and will have some questions about modification and interchange, but for now please enjoy these photos of what's become of two basket-case golden age jukes: an L100 now worthy of rebuilding. Almost every cabinet piece has a cosmetic issue that cumulatively would cost more to correct than the juke is worth, but it certainly has the potential to exist and be enjoyed- and I find the wear-and-tear personally kind of charming. Thanks!

[dberman51]

It’s going to be beautiful!

-David

[dhutton]

Thats coming along quite nicely.
(is that a Marantz I spy in the background?)

[wilitrun]

Jul 6, 2024 18:17:04 GMT dhutton said:

Thats coming along quite nicely.
(is that a Marantz I spy in the background?)

Thank you Mr Hutton, yes it is, a 2325 in fact- just recently shopped and running excellent. Looking for a nice turntable to pair with the Advent /1s I have for it. I love and collect all kinds of things. Cheers!

[wilitrun]

Here's a photo of the L as it sits now since installing the selection keyboard and left pilaster a couple of days ago. As every cabinet piece has a major cosmetic issue, I'm going to leave it just as it is at this point and focus on returning it to operational condition. The mechanism is intact but needs gone through, the mech cover is from a hideaway which explains the missing badge, so I'm going to sleeve it and cement it together and leave it at that. All the EM was emptied from the lower compartment many years ago, so I'm going to get it functional however I can. I have a set of speakers from an LS2 Gem, and if I can find a receiver I may go with Victory Glass's solid state amplifier to power it. I'd also like to swap the tonearm and pickup to the blue-green that takes Pickering stereo cartridges and wedge needles so I can get new needles and intermix mono and stereo records (I really don't feel keeping it monaural and 100% correct is going to add to the ownership experience given how cosmetically poor it is).

I realize the brief may offend some purists here but I think if any such person took a close look at this juke you'd feel better that I'm not taking valuable parts out of circulation to put on this unit- it's a potentially functional but not a restorable unit. I'd sincerely appreciate any and all advice about how to get this unit functional again by any means necessary- I still have access to some later model console units that could give up some parts to fill in the gaps. Thanks!

[jukenorman]

That is some project you have taken on, it will be interesting to see how you proceed, do keep us informed! I don't think I would be overly concerned about the tonearm and cartridge just yet, there's a lot to resolve before that.

Norman.

[wilitrun]

Jul 7, 2024 14:52:00 GMT jukenorman said:

That is some project you have taken on, it will be interesting to see how you proceed, do keep us informed! I don't think I would be overly concerned about the tonearm and cartridge just yet, there's a lot to resolve before that.

Norman.

Thanks Norman, yes I keep getting struck with cognitive dissonance when looking at the before pictures I took just a couple weeks ago at how bad it really was before I blasted through cleaning and polishing. With no further investment in materials it went from basket case to definitely worthwhile in about 15 hours.
I do have a couple of HF100R complete mechanisms, both with redhead carts and styli intact, that I can use for repairs to the L mech. My biggest problem is the lack of a receiver. From what I've been told about the receivers, the L100 had problems with the printed circuit boards that caused reliability and fire issues, and while the 101 resolved these, their production numbers were very low so modules would be scarce. If I can find a receiver that I can adapt to work with my mech, the Victory Glass amplifier would be worth the cost to get this unit playing again. Failing that I also have a SHP3 that I could shop and somehow wire in to play the LS2 speakers and maybe some remote speakers elsewhere in my rec room. That is my current line of thinking. Cheers!

[jukenorman]

Yes I had been thinking that the L100 particularly was going to be problematic because of the circuit boards of the K series - the L100 was really just a baby K. So I had thought making up an L101 would be your best option but you would have to change the plugs on the tormat cable and the pushbuttons cable to the receiver. The L101 receiver is the same as the 161 and 201 (the L101 is a baby 201) and I suspect that any receiver up to the DS (and any amplifier) would work OK, fit together and sit on the back door - if you have one? A redhead would also work just fine and the replacement stylii are stereo compatible. As an aside funnily enough, what would annoy me most about your jukebox are these four red pushbuttons! Also, would the Victory Glass amplifier not be an expensive item on what is a budget refurbishment?

Norman.

[wilitrun]

Hi Norman, interesting- it would be great to know which receivers to look for, as the seller may still have one repairable receiver in spares storage. Changing connectors isn't daunting to me as I had to make up a set of adaptor jumpers to wire in my SSU4 to my SS160 (molex plastic to AMP bakelite) just a few weeks ago.
I wasn't aware that cross compatible stylii are still being produced for the early mono redheads- my understanding is that mono record grooves have a different profile and mono styli will destroy a stereo record in one play, so didn't think anyone would bother making a mono stylus compatible with a stereo record. Where can I buy this exciting product?!
I've left the red keys in place to remind me of the juke's story - it was in revenue service from new to about 20 years ago and sat in unheated storage until I brought it home. When it was last in use the industry (at least up here) was pretty bleak and some of the earlier jukes were getting parted out to keep the rest of the fleet going. There are still a couple empty 100R cabinets up there where those red keys came from. It's also a unique identifier that someone may remember from when it was last in play, so I've decided to leave them. I also have a really good rapport with the seller who's been happy to tell me what he remembers about when the various jukes I've bought from him were still in use, and has some colourful stories about when his grandfather was still running the operation. They were a rough-and-ready bunch which I guess you'd have to be going into a roadhouse to fix a malfunctioning juke when the guests were all wild from overindulging. I'm sure there's an amusing story behind why the hatch was missing from the L - the Q160 I pulled from there has a damaged upper cabinet lid as well and a bent lower grille which I'm sure were both not entirely accidental. Cheers!

[jukenorman]

First of all the redhead; the original mono stylii for the redheads were akin to nails protruding from the blue plastic holder and they would certainly damage stereo records. But for as long as I can remember, the repro redhead stylii are "L" shaped and there is no problem using these on stereo records because they have both horizontal and vertical compliance (which the "nails" did not). I've had a 201 with a redhead for over thirty years and it's fine with stereo pressings.

Now your L100! Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a challenge if you go the route of configuring it as an L101 but it's certainly do-able! As I said above, the L101 receiver would have been a TSR6 - OK maybe I didn't say it but it uses the same receiver as used in a 201. I've had a look at a DS receiver, a TSU7, and I cannot see it being any more challenging to use than a TSR6 (the TSR6 was the last receiver with a built in stepper). So your choice would be TSR6 or TSU1 through TSU7 and I'm going on the basis that if the TSU7 is OK, the earlier TSU's will be fine. I would steer clear of the V receivers unless it was all that was available.

Thanks for the explanation of the red pushbuttons - a bit of history and a talking point!


Norman.

[wilitrun]

Hey Norman, thanks for this info as it will be extremely helpful. I'm going back this week and will have a look for one of those receivers- I'm sure I saw at least one. My Q has a TSU1/TJU2 code B so I can get a bit of a headstart as to what needs changed. I checked the two spare 100R mechs I have and between the two mono redheads I have, I have an example of the nail and L stylii. I can see them now on the n4j website. Thanks!

[jukenorman]

FYI I'm not sure that a TSU4 and TSU6 actually exist! But yes, examining the TSU that you have on your Q will give you a fair idea of what's in fromt of you!

Norman.