M100A Cartridge Hunt

As I hunt for an original M100A Cartridge, I ran across a guy selling on one ebay from Canada. I read someplace in the last week about people having a problem with someone in Canada. I also get suspicious when people who are selling change their user name on ebay.

The part on ebay is: 121121685841

The seller name history is:

User ID Effective Date End Date
jukesforfun Mar-03-13 Present
burrlyone Jan-08-04 Mar-03-13

If anyone has any information on this seller, please let me know. At $300 for a unknown condition cartridge with the wrong needles for a 78, I wonder. Also, if Gib at West Tech rebuilt it, then why is the sticker not cut down the middle to open it up?

Thanks, James

James,
The sticker is not cut, as this seller has re-produced these, and sells them on eBay--they were not originally on any "blackheads", as they were introduced with, and used only on the redheads. Ron Rich

Hi All,

I have been calling around the country to find an original M100A and so far no luck. I will give it a month or two then...

I am thinking of trying to barrow one from someone. I will put it into the 3D scanner and create a 3D file of the shell. I will detail the inside metal parts. I will then 3D print a bunch of housing and make the coils and metal parts. I figure that I can recover my costs over time and have brand new cartridges.

I hate to go this way, but I also hate to pay people a lot for used junk that may or may not work over the long haul.

I may think about modifying it once in the computer to accept a newer more available needle.

James

James,
If you have the ability--go ahead and make it !! The available needles for that are OK ?
Ron Rich

Looks like I will not have to try to make one. I sent an email to a 1/2 dozen people who do jukebox repair around the county asking if anyone had a M100A cartridge that they would sell me.

Rick Murray in MA contacted me and has one to sell me at a reasonable price.

At some point in time however, it would be interesting to identify a mass produced cartridge with a good supply of 78-LPmono-45mono-45Stereo needles and create a cartridge that would fit all the Seeburg Select-o-Matics and would take all the needles one would need.

This is an area where 3D scanning and 3D printing could solve a problem for everyone as once the computer program was in the can and a supply of the guts and needles stocked, they could be made as needed without a big manufacturing cost.

If I was to do it, I would think that perhaps the Sure needles may be a good choice.

Something to think about once I finish my 2.5 year restoration of my late mothers 1949 Desoto Convertible.

James

Ron, s'plain somthin' to me, ok?

As a servicer and long-time user of high-fidelity consumer products, I've seen untold cartidges of every flavor through the decades.
Ceramic, crystal, and of course magnetic.

That said... I've never come across a magnetic cartridge for consumer use that was defective - as in having an open coil.
Not to say on occasion this doesn't happen... I just never came across one in decades of dealing with them...

How come these juke magnetics are explained as being defective so much?
I can see a worn stylus, but please describe how a cartridge can "go bad".
Is there some shoddy way these things deteriorate in juke use?

I am not Ron, but have run into bad carts and there are a couple of points especially with regard to this old "Blackhead" type.

First off it was not hermetically sealed and infact has a fair amount of open area where the crud from the records it destroyed got back at it by gumming up the armature inside.

There also the problem that the cantilever and stylus are held center by rubber pads and a metal piece. When the pads deteriorate the whole armature stresses the metal piece for support and it can break off. This can be repaired, but it needs a surgeon's hand.

Around 1954 Seeburg got Pickering to produce a sealed cart and all but one of these that I've seen was OK -crude sounding, but electrically good.

Open coils on mag carts even jukes are a rarity. I think the reason they seem more frequent is that operators never threw those few that did fail away and they rattle around in a parts box and wind up being sold or dumped into as-is machines to make them look intact (they do that with other parts too).

I early 1992 Stanton/Pickering sent me three samples of their new retrofit cart for the Seeburg mono machines.

One was DOA -open. Another had a crooked head but useable. They sent back better quality specimens and those are all still on location.

In consumer goods, I can see a scenario where someone might plug a turntable into the speaker plugs since they were often both RCA. They turn up the volume, fiddle with the input switch adn throw the amp right into that hapless cart. My 8th year English teacher did that in late 1970.

Rob/NYC

Hello MattTech,

Like yourself I have never come across a faulty cartridge with regards to the coils, I have seen problems when third parties have soldered direct to the cartridge connection pins and where they have worn into the metal by misadjustment of the tone arms.

The vast majority of the cartridges I have delt with have been the Shure M44C and a few Seeburg and NSM cartridges in the 30 odd years I have been repairing jukeboxes.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man

Rob/NYC,

Tell me more about "I early 1992 Stanton/Pickering sent me three samples of their new retrofit cart for the Seeburg mono machines."

What did these look like? How did they work over time?

Thanks, James

Commenting on original question about alleged dishonest Ebay Seller jukesforfun Mar-03-13 Present
burrlyone Jan-08-04 Mar-03-13. There has been quite a negative discussion about burrlyone jukesforfun lack of honesty on the yahoo Seeburg Jukebox forum by guys who have had bad experiences. It would appear he changed his ebay name during one of those times when he was actively being slammed on the yahoo seeburg forum. Personally I would stay clear from buying anything from jukesforfun as I don't like being jerked.