Tony's Arcade

The Seeburg High Power Amplifier, or SHP, is the audio amplifier found in Digital Seeburg jukeboxes from 1972 to 1978. This amplifier is capable of a maximum of 100 watts per chanal for a total of 200 watts. (The jukebox’s 12″ woofers and horns are usually connected to the 50 watt terminal for each channel. The extra power is to drive remote speakers and consolettes.) There are two main versions of this amplifier, the SHP1 and SHP3; both are interchangeable with each other. My Sunstar STD3 has the SHP1 — probably not the factory installed amplifier as the Sunstar usually came with the SHP3. Since the SHP1 and SHP3 are interchangeable, service technicians would usually swap out the SHP with another one to make speedy service calls. My Sunstar was having a few audio issues when playing. There was a lot of static (even when there wasn’t a record playing!), the volume would lower in the right channel, and there were chirps when sounds with a high amplitude (“punchy” sounds) occurred. This is how I fixed all the problems. The SHP1 and SHP3 driver boards are the same; the pre-amp boards are different. If you have a SHP3, be sure to double check your schematics before proceeding!

My repair notes may help you in your SHP troubleshooting and they may not. For a more comprehensive troubleshooting guide with the SHP amplifiers, purchase “The Seeburg SHP Amplifiers” available from Tony Miller’s website.

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For the past few years, I have been searching for a jukebox project. I had the right jukebox in mind — something like the one from Yantic Pizza in Norwich, CT when I was a kid. That particular jukebox, in all its multi-colored glory, was probably a Seeburg from the 1970s. I specifically remember what went down in Franklin Little League lore as the “Huey Lewis Jukebox Incident” back in 1984 at Yantic Pizza. My friends and I were having pizza there with our parents and, between all of our quarters we had in our pockets, we selected “The Heart of Rock and Roll” to play nine times. In a row. We loved that song! I still remember leaving the joint with the adults shaking their heads as Huey Lewis was singing in the background. So, I knew I had to get a Seeburg from the 70s for its disco looks and style, and of course it had to play 45s.

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