Question About Sun Studios in Memphis

Two weeks ago I visited the Sun Studios in Memphis. It was a great tour and the tour guide was quite impressive with his knowledge and his story telling skills. He gave the history of the studio, some background on Sam Phillips, the first recordings, how Elvis came into the studio, the Million Dollar session, etc. and how it was evetually shut down, sold to a scuba equipment dealer and then reopened as the museum.

It was great and very exciting to be standing in the very spots where the recordings were made and where the photo of the million dollar quartet was actually taken (the photo is on the wall where the actual shot was taken).

At the end of the tour we are standing in the middle of the studio. There are various instruments around the wall and the guide went around pointing out some of the instruments. He pointed to the piano and said, "this is the actual piano used by Jerry Lee Lewis to record Great Balls of Fire". At the very end he held up an old stand up microphone and said, "This is the actual microphone that was used record all of the Elvis recordings, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash and most of the other early rock and roll records". He then invited us up to touch it and get our photos taken with the microphone.

So, here's the question, is there any chance at all that this really was the piano used by Jerry Lee Lewis on Great Balls of Fire and was that the actual microphone used by Elvis. It seems pretty unlikely to me that they are the originals (I'd have thought that if it was the real microphone that it would be in the Smithsonian)?

Do any of the forum members have the scoop here?

Colin

 

Ah yes, great question! I'd be curious to know the answer to this as well.

 

The piano wasn't mentioned but the Elvis mic was there. Im went today and while not a huge fan of that era man I was feeling so overwhelmed by the experience.

 

I know I'm replying to a 7-year old posting here, but I took the tour of Sun today and also heard the same line about it being the same microphone that Elvis used. Everyone is invited to touch it and pose for photos with it. The funny thing is that I recently saw a You Tube clip that someone recorded from another tour. In that clip, you can see the microphone that they claim is the original has a big dent in the front of it. The microphone I saw on the tour today did not have the dent. So it seems like it's not consistently the same microphone being touted as the original. It may have been one of the microphones from Sam Philips' collection...and may have been present at the Sun sessions...but I would take some of the claims about the microphone with a grain of salt.

 

We drove over after dark, 2004, everything was closed, but the most miraculous thing happened to my son and I...we both realized that not a single person was anywhere near us. Not a solitary car drove by, we " had the place to ourselves," and it was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop !

 

I went there twice in the early '80s, just after they refurbished the place, but it was closed both times. Still felt a heavy vibe -- like going to a shrine.
(And we were the only people on the block, too, the neighborhood was deserted.)

 

I don't know if the piano currently inside the Sun Studio was played by Jerry Lee Lewis during the studio's heyday, but I'm certain the Shure microphone was not used by Elvis on the Sun releases recorded by him and the Blue Moon Boys. Scotty Moore (lead guitarist in the Blue Moon Boys) explained to me that an Altec condenser microphone was used to capture Elvis' vocal performances. Lots of photos exist of Elvis singing into the inferior Shure microphone, but those photos were taken during live performances and publicity shoots.

 

Finally found this photo that I took in 1981. Looks a lot different now.

 

I could care less if Elvis, Jerry, Carl etc touched or used it.. it was a huge thrill to visit, and I got a nice photo too. I highly recommend visiting Sun Studios when you're in Memphis. It was only $12 for the tour.

 

Amazing experience being in Sun. So much great stuff to see, hear and eat in Memphis.

 

We had the same experience when we went back to Sun last night. We had completed the tour in the daylight hours, but I wanted to revisit at night to get photos of the neon lit up. Where there had been a hustle and bustle of tourists there earlier in the day, we felt like we were the only souls there at night.

 

Great photo - you make me wanna go back.

 

Absolutely beautiful photo Trashman, I just saved to my pictures library. God, how does 10 years go by so fast ?
We gotta get back down I-40, there's just no reason not to !

 

Just made it my Desktop Background...and my laptop is piano black, so...

 

Thanks for the nice words. If you want a photo for your desktop, perhaps a photo with landscape orientation will work even better...

 

Thanks, but the first one is really outstanding. You should be very proud.

 

Great photos, this tour is on my bucket list along with the Stax tour.

 

Don't forget Graceland (a real trip!) and the MLK Memorial/Civil Rights Museum. And Beale Street, the ducks at the Peabody, ribs at the Rendezvous, and Gus's Fried Chicken.

 

Fantastic photos! Also, to the OP question, I really don't think there was a set vocal mic that Sam Phillips (or Jack Clement) used. In some accounts I've read over time, Phillips would set mics up according to the session, and some he felt would pick up some things better than others (including sometimes putting mics further away in the room to get a bit of natural reverb).

Some photos have RCA type mics for vocalists, others had the one they say is the "Elvis mic". It's more than probable that it was a mic used by Elvis, Lewis, Cash, Perkins, et al. for sessions, but Phillips and Clement would sometimes change them round according to session and sound they wanted.

 

I just finished my visit to Memphis and managed to see Graceland, Sun Studio, Stax, Ardent Studio (privately arranged), Rock N Soul Museum, and the Gibson Guitar factory. I also stopped by the Lorraine Motel to see the MLK site (the museum was closed at the time). It was eerie, since the motel looks exactly like it did in 1968.

Stax is neat, but it's not the original building (which was torn down in 1989). But it's still an interesting museum and worth the visit.

The Gibson factory tour is highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of their hollow-body (and semi-hollow) guitars. It's only 45 minutes, but you see all of the steps in making the guitars. It was fascinating to watch someone hand-painting a sunburst design.

 

That is one fantastic trip you took. Memphis is one the coolest cities in America, and a cultural wonderland for music freaks like us.

I just finished Respect Yourself, the Stax book by Robert Gordon -- I hope you read it. It describes the old studio in detail, and is a great history lesson.