Seeburg EBCS1 - Part One

One of my favorite memories has always been of jukebox remote selector units that were still at work on the tables and counters of truck stops and diners in the early 70s.  My childhood family travels were always road trips, and getting to eat in restaurants was always a huge treat.  These gleaming boxes sat at the crossroads of adventure travel, culinary delight, childhood vending machine desires and the fun of jukebox music.   


I've thought on many occasions about buying one of the remote selector units - though I'm not particularly interested in a full size jukebox at the moment.  On a recent visit to the closest indoor "flea market" (rented space for sellers) I spotted something that looked jukebox related.  A quick peek at the back revealed the Seeburg tag and part number.  $20 and I loaded it up.  


Getting home I searched more extensively to learn that I had a Seeburg EBSC-1 Extended Bass Consolette Speaker (photo) (description - 2/3way down).  In short this unit had a backboard where an SC1, SC2 or SC3 would be mounted to make selections and the music would be piped back and play out of both the Consolette's little speakers and this unit's bigger speaker.  The front of the speaker unit is a delightful combination of chrome speaker grill and internally lit glass and chrome advertising display.  Here is a photo immediately after removing the 'backboard'.  

 Those little album sleeves are called "Little LPs".  They were shortened versions of albums.  According to here.....

33 RPM "Little LP's" were designed for the Jukebox industry and were the same size as 45 RPM. Many machines from the 1960's until the 80's took either 45 RPM's or 33 Little LP's. Each little LP usually had 3-4 songs per side.

The immediate problem was that the thing was locked up tight with cabinet locks on either side with no keys.  Nothing the drill didn't solve.  It opened to this latch point (sorry - bad focus).  

  
A quick shot into the opening...documentation is always a good find.

Interior with docs and original spare parts bag removed...innards:

Not very complicated.  The bottom is the audio handling stuff and the top is fluorescent lighting gear - holders for a T-5 bulb, ballast and starter.   I popped a bulb in there and fired it up.  I was so surprised when it actually lit up that I forgot to take the next picture.  The ballast/starter only worked that one time and immediately gave up the ghost.  I've ordered a fully enclosed fixture that should fit fine.


I was delighted to find that the Little LP sleeves also contained some of the song sheets as well as still smaller stickers of the album cover.  These would sit in the start and end panels of the Consolette to further promote an artist.  Here is a sample.

So what to do with this thing?   I'd love to rig it so that it would sit on a shelf and light up normally, but also secretly house some kind of digital music system.  Where would I put a display or interface?  Can I turn the chrome speaker area into a push-latching fold up or fold down opening?    Maybe put a retired laptop inside? Self powered pc speakers will do just fine inside.  At the least I could run a 1/8 stereo plug out the existing wiring ports for a small MP3 Player.  


Next step is to get this stripped and cleaned out a little.  There's a lot of dust and a few long dead bugs in the bottom.  To be continued....