I try to build jukeboxes, just to see if I can,
For the FUN of it .......
About Me
My name is Laurence OR Loz. I live in England 20 miles north of London with my wife Karen. I'm over 55 and work for living doing other engineering stuff.
World War II was ONLY over after Japan surrendered. The armed forces in the South Pacific were still fighting.
A Little Back Ground
In 1977 I was 15, my mates & I got two Dansette type record players, which we placed side by side so we could mix between the two using the volume control on each one, but it didn't look very good. We found "liberated" some ply wood and built a double deck disco console, building & wiring the 2 small valve amps into the console. After a few electric shocks we had a working twin decks, still using the volume control on each turn table. We made soft felt disks for under the records giving us instant starts by holding the felt disk with the platter spinning beneath. If you used the on/off switch it was more than full rotation of the track before reaching the right speed, get that wrong and people would here the music speed up. Anyway, although not very loud, it was good enough for having a disco in the garage. (You've heard of garage bands, we were a garage disco). With borrowed flashing road beacons, it was a great way to spend the summer holiday in a garage.
During the 80's I had a go at being a Mobile DJ (who didn't ) This was before there were superstar DJ's ( it could've been me!) Due to the high cost of good equipment, we built our own, lots of ply wood, glue and matte black paint. We made consoles and light boxes by the dozen, we must have kept the lamp manufacturers in caviar the way we used to go through lamps and fuses (trial and error on the wiring)
Our last Console a FAL RANGER twin decks with built in amps (bit more professional)
I've still got this one below, stored in the attic / loft. I got it from a fire damage sale in the 90's and refurbished it by removing all the soot from inside & out, replacing the drive belts. It's a CITRONIC THAMES II, with computerized cue system on the decks. EG: Place the needle on the lead in track and it will find the first sound, then rewind half a turn and be ready to start when the other record fades out, and then automatically start playing (see the videos)
I HAVE JUST GOT THIS SYSTEM AND I'M PRACTICING MY DJ SKILLS AGAIN,
LOVING THE LOOP FACILITY! & THE AUTO SYNC ISN'T TOO BAD EITHER