The Doors – Strange Days

Per The Doors Guide website - a website that aims to be the ultimate resource for one of the most innovative bands to come out of the west coast music scene in the late 1960s — THE DOORS":

"Robby Krieger plays a red 1964 Gibson SG Special with P-90 pickups on the first two Doors albums and for a bulk of the group's live shows from 1966-1970 (later with an added tremolo bar). Sadly, this legendary guitar was stolen and remains missing. I have the guitar's original serial number so anyone who believes they've found it can contact me for confirmation. Note: Robby sometimes incorrectly refers to this as a '64 Gibson Melody Maker."

At about 1:35 during this video for Reverb, Krieger discusses his studio rig for recording with The Doors: "Recording wise, it was the SG and a Twin Reverb. That was pretty much it." The recording dates for the first two Doors albums indicate this would have been a Blackface model (the Silverface variant was not manufactured until 1968, at which point "The Doors" and "Strange Days" had already been recorded and released).

This site states that Morrison used a Moog Modular Synthesizer on the song "Strange Days."

Used for vocals (starting with Strange Days), as stated by engineer Bruce Botnick across Doors-related literature.

• December 2003 - "Classic Tracks: The Doors 'Strange Days'", Sound on Sound

  While Telefunken U47s were employed to record both Robby Krieger's guitar and Ray Manzarek's electric organ, the piano-bass was DI'd. Tried and trusted, this was Bruce Botnick's miking technique for assorted setups with a wide variety of artists. (...) Jim Morrison's vocals were captured with a U47, and although Botnick didn't use a pop shield during the Strange Days sessions — "I still don't like using them," he says, "I can hear them" — this would become a necessity a few years later when a drunken Morrison risked getting moisture on the capsule. At that point, Botnick would resort to making filters out of ladies' stockings glued over wire frames, "and when they were fresh Jim would get stoned off of the glue!

  "Still, he was great, and for the most part he was one of the easiest people I've ever had to record. He had a big, full sound — his idol was Frank Sinatra, and he always had those legendary crooners in his soul, even though he could go from crooning to screaming in a flash. He was like [Peruvian singer] Yma Sumac, with a four-octave range. I could set up his mic and just brush him lightly with compression in order to grab it when he screamed, but otherwise he was right there. He gave full value to every note. He was a controlled singer, like Sinatra and like Elvis. He loved Elvis, and he was a good student."

• 2006 - Perception liner notes for Strange Days (transcribed in The Doors FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Kings of Acid Rock by Rich Weidman (2011))

  In the liner notes for Strange Days in the Perception Box Set, Doors engineer Bruce Botnik related the story of how he chose a Telefunken U47 microphone for Morrison: "The significance of the U47 wasn't lost on him, since he was a big fan of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. The first time Jim stepped up in front of the microphone, he immediately recognized it from Sinatra's Swingin' Session album cover and was flattered to be sonically linked to one of his idols!

• October 9, 2007 - "Opening the Doors", Electronic Musician

  What did you use for Jim Morrison’s vocals?

  A Neumann U47 — which has pretty much always been my favorite vocal mic. And yes, for Strange Days, we didn’t use any pop filters. I hate them, because I can hear them. Jim was very controlled, so a light compression when he screamed into the mic was all it took to keep him sounding even. In those days, it was very common to have technical recording information on the back of the albums. They would list, “Trumpets: U47” and the like. So I would listen to the records, hear those sounds, and, then when I got back to the studio, I’d try out the mics. I’d say to myself, “Wow, it does have that sound character. That’s cool. I’m going to use it!”