55S Shure Multi-Impedance “Unidyne” Microphone manufactured in 1951. Used during the 1950’s in Les Paul’s home recording studio in Mahwah, New Jersey, the 55S model was considered ideal for broadcasting, recording, and other sound applications during its heyday. Also known as the “Unidyne” Dynamic, Shure once described the hallmark characteristic of this mic as having been obtained by the “uniphase” principle, which more simply put allowed for a highly satisfactory sound when difficult acoustic conditions would render a conventional microphone utterly useless. Like their friend and fellow star Bing Crosby, Les Paul and Mary Ford used this microphone extensively for the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer’s mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is one foot or more away. When implemented using a pressure-gradient (uni- or bi-directional) microphone as Paul and Ford did with the 55S Shure, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due and can give a more relaxed feel to any given recording or live performance. The result of close miking is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing popular in the musical comedies of 1930’s and 1940’s.

Dimensions: 49” h (w/stand)