A lot packed into that reply! I have not serviced any of these newer boxes, just a hobbyist here, and never noticed the backwards cartridge. The tone arm on the “wrong” side always totally confused me as to “why” but never thought about how the cartridge would have to be turned around. So, yesterday I went over to my buddy’s house that has a Rowe Bubbler, and sure enough, backwards! Funny story you shared with turning the cart the “right” way! So now I really don’t understand why they would think of putting the tone arm over there for yet another reason! The first is “it looks wrong” and after all, they were building something that most people obviously watch… the unconcealed mech… it’s a part of the whole experience to watch the jukebox play… and oh, let’s put the tone arm on the wrong side, people won’t be bothered or notice much. Really?
Anyway, thanks for getting me to notice the cartridge! As far as wiring on the cartridge, that reminded me of the screwey wiring on the Cont 2 cartridge, probably the same deal. Brad
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The reason the arm was fitted on the left hand side of the mechanism was to enable Rowe to utilise off the shelf "multi" motors which were geared in that way. This started with the JAL 200 in 1963 and went right to the end of their vinyl.
The cartridge is in "backwards" when you can see the stylus and it is essentially back cueing constantly. The arm geometry then is also completely out resulting in record wear.
When fitted correctly, if you think about it, is the same way as in a normal tone arm, it's just rotated around the other side of the deck.
One record side of vertical playing jukeboxes also works in the same way, unless it's had a crappy aftermarket cartridge fitted that back cues one side continually.
The Rowe 1100/1200 tonearm is great. Tracks well and can go down to 2 grams if you like it light. Weight counterbalanced, crude anti skate, I think it's a nice arm.
In the 70s/80s I did come across a few Rowe's in commercial use with the (non original) cartridge fitted incorrectly.
Nigel, uk
On 4 Jul 2023 at 15:56, Bradley Grant via Jukebox-list jukebox-list@lists.netlojix.com wrote:
A lot packed into that reply! I have not serviced any of these newer boxes, just a hobbyist here, and never noticed the backwards cartridge. The tone arm on the “wrong” side always totally confused me as to “why” but never thought about how the cartridge would have to be turned around. So, yesterday I went over to my buddy’s house that has a Rowe Bubbler, and sure enough, backwards! Funny story you shared with turning the cart the “right” way! So now I really don’t understand why they would think of putting the tone arm over there for yet another reason! The first is “it looks wrong” and after all, they were building something that most people obviously watch… the unconcealed mech… it’s a part of the whole experience to watch the jukebox play… and oh, let’s put the tone arm on the wrong side, people won’t be bothered or notice much. Really?
Anyway, thanks for getting me to notice the cartridge! As far as wiring on the cartridge, that reminded me of the screwey wiring on the Cont 2 cartridge, probably the same deal. Brad
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad _______________________________________________ Jukebox-list mailing list -- jukebox-list@lists.netlojix.com To unsubscribe send an email to jukebox-list-leave@lists.netlojix.com %(web_page_url)slistinfo%(cgiext)s/%(_internal_name)s Searchable Archives: http://jukebox.markmail.org/
I’d always assumed the left side arm was for visual impact. It made sense since their first model was the JAL.
However, several people including two with closer ties to Rowe have stated the real reason was to mechanically balance the mech. Arm, cam and switches on one side and search unit on the other.
As for the phase shifting (Stereo Round) –I never cared for it. Record wear and poor stylus condition produce distortion that is out of phase. The exaggerated stereo just emphasized this. The result; op’s reducing the already recessive treble level to try and cover that distortion. Most 45’s were mono in the 1960’s anyway.
FWIW: the arm on the 1100-1200 mech was excellent. Properly set up (better stylus, anti-skate carefully set and the no-record reject wires removed) the arm tracked properly at 1 gram VTF. I sent them all out at 2gm. For “critical” locations I used a Stanton D-150 cart.
RobNYC
On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 10:14:55 AM GMT-5, Nigel Pugh via Jukebox-list jukebox-list@lists.netlojix.com wrote:
The reason the arm was fitted on the left hand side of the mechanism was to enable Rowe to utilise off the shelf "multi" motors which were geared in that way. This started with the JAL 200 in 1963 and went right to the end of their vinyl.
The cartridge is in "backwards" when you can see the stylus and it is essentially back cueing constantly. The arm geometry then is also completely out resulting in record wear. When fitted correctly, if you think about it, is the same way as in a normal tone arm, it's just rotated around the other side of the deck.
One record side of vertical playing jukeboxes also works in the same way, unless it's had a crappy aftermarket cartridge fitted that back cues one side continually.
The Rowe 1100/1200 tonearm is great. Tracks well and can go down to 2 grams if you like it light. Weight counterbalanced, crude anti skate, I think it's a nice arm.
In the 70s/80s I did come across a few Rowe's in commercial use with the (non original) cartridge fitted incorrectly.
Nigel, uk
On 4 Jul 2023 at 15:56, Bradley Grant via Jukebox-list jukebox-list@lists.netlojix.com wrote: A lot packed into that reply! I have not serviced any of these newer boxes, just a hobbyist here, and never noticed the backwards cartridge. The tone arm on the “wrong” side always totally confused me as to “why” but never thought about how the cartridge would have to be turned around. So, yesterday I went over to my buddy’s house that has a Rowe Bubbler, and sure enough, backwards! Funny story you shared with turning the cart the “right” way! So now I really don’t understand why they would think of putting the tone arm over there for yet another reason! The first is “it looks wrong” and after all, they were building something that most people obviously watch… the unconcealed mech… it’s a part of the whole experience to watch the jukebox play… and oh, let’s put the tone arm on the wrong side, people won’t be bothered or notice much. Really?
Anyway, thanks for getting me to notice the cartridge! As far as wiring on the cartridge, that reminded me of the screwey wiring on the Cont 2 cartridge, probably the same deal. Brad
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