How's your hearing?

[Robert****]

Is your hearing top-notch? I suffer a bit from hearing loss. I believe it's from playing for all these years, and especially from the loud drummers I've played with.

I haven't actually tested my hearing yet, but my wife gets frustrated with me cause I can't hear what she's saying half of the time. I may need to get a hearing aid I guess. It's embarrassing when I sometimes don't hear people's questions even after the 3rd time the repeat it... It's especially hard for me when there is a some background noise - the words I hear from people just sound like mumbling.

Do you have any experience with musician's earplugs? I found these - http://www.hearos.com/products-music.htm - not sure how good they are. I am starting to use cheap foam earplugs for loud activities now, like running the lawn mower and playing with stupid loud drummers!

[Katastrophe]

Yep, I've got hearing loss in my left ear, but the right is still within normal levels. When I go shooting, now I plug and use earmuffs, and will use plugs when playing a full length show, or when I go to a loud event.

At a recent festival, I was talking with one of the guitar players in one of the bands. He used plugs, but said all of his musician friends have tinnitus, which is a bad deal. What good is playing music if you can no longer hear it?

[Spudman***]

Ya Robert. I have exactly the same problems. Vocal frequencies are tough to hear but I can hear the high pitched tweet of a bird in the forest 1/2 mile away.
I think my problem was from standing in front of loud monitors for many many years. Of course the mics picked up the cymbals, vocals and guitar and kept feeding it back into the monitors and my ears. Damage done. I also have tinnitus. You know, constant jet engine whine.
If people will talk loud or directly at me or change the pitch of their voice then I can hear them. Conveniently I have a hard time hearing most female voices.

[Tim]

I can’t use the ones bought in a music stores or any pharmacies. They are jus too stiff and hurt my ears. I use industrial type air plugs. The ones in the attached hyperlink are made to protect the ears from aircraft engines and such. I even take them with me when I travel. Hotels can get very noisy so I sleep with them in my ears. The nice thing about these is they filter out the damaging frequencies, but you can still hear a wake up alarm clock.

These ear plugs are very soft and can be used several times. After awhile you do not even know they are in your ears. As mentioned above, I often sleep with them in my ears. You get 200 pairs fro about $20.00 (20 cents a pair and well worth it). They used to come in several colors. It’s been awhile since I placed an order.

Here is the site: http://www.omarksafety.com/category....0_Pair_Box.cfm

[marnold***]

What?




Sorry, couldn't resist.

[jpfeifer]

Hi Robert,

Yeah, I seem to have the same problem. I have a hard time hearing speach when there is background noise present. I notice that when someone tells a joke in a noisy place and everyone laughs. I'm always the one saying "what, I didn't hear that last part?"

I know that another cause of hearing problems like this is sinus trouble. If your inner is not in balance due to alergies, airplane flights, etc. you can get these same kind of symptoms. I remember reading an article about a record producer who said that he wouldn't schedule any mixdown sessions for 1 day after he flew on an airplane. I'm traveling a lot for my job so my ears are always in a state of poping from this anyway. With that and the hearing loss that I probably have from music, I know that it's not a good thing. Maybe that's why I like to see things written down ? ...

-- Jim

[loudncrunchy]

It used to be that if you wore ear plugs, you were a pussy. Remember that saying "If it's too loud....". Well, people like Pete Townshend and Ted Nugent are now paying the price for that BS fodder. What really scared me into protecting my hearing is when I read about losing the ability to hear pitch. As all guitar players know, once that happens, you might as well hang it up. While I have tried many earplugs, the best ones I think are the kind that start out as molded impressions in the ear. They cost about $40-80 dollars. They're definitely worth it. They keep out the harmful decibles and you can still hear background voices/noise.

[Spudman***]

Hey Marnold!

Dude, clean the wax out of your eyes. It's text not audio. Yeesh, guitar players are nothin but clowns.
I said Clowns Marnold.

[SuperSwede]

I have to agree with Jim, I get a lot of strange ear problems during the summers due to my pollen allergy. If that wasnt bad enough I sometimes get high pitched tones in my ears (reminds of some kind of moog/theremin sound), not the jet engine sound but it can be really annoying.

[Tim]

Hey Spuds - Why are you yelling? I can't hear you cause I have my ear plugs in!

[marnold***]

I said Clowns Marnold.

I am NOT a clown. I am very clearly a mime.

I will now cease hijacking this otherwise important thread.

[Katastrophe]

Howard Leight makes a cheap, but decent ear plug. Go to the gun supplies aisle of your local Wally World and get some Silencio reuseable plugs... They're not bad, and cheap, too. If you don't mind wearing earmuffs (like at practice), Peltor makes a very good active earmuff that hold filters out sounds in the dangerous decibel / frequency range. I've used them on the range before, and they work, but they can be pricey...

Incidentally, most plugs will list the amount of decibel reduction on the package somewhere... I go for the biggest reduction I can find, usually around 29 or 30 db.

[kerc]

Is your hearing top-notch?

What did you say? Huh?

[tremoloman***]

I tried using earplugs live but it just messes up my playing since it alters how my volume sounds. I either cannot hear myself or I'm blowing the house down. I really should try to get used to them though since my ears ring for a day after a gig.

[Iago]

not that great... I busted my left eardrum twice and the right one once :/

[Tim]

not that great... I busted my left eardrum twice and the right one once :/

Please inform us how you managed to do that Iago! This should make for very interestig reading.

[Iago]

the first one was for blowing my nose too strongly when i was 7.. I cant remember that well... so I already had a historic for "weak eardrums". I remember going to the phonoaudiologist (dont know how you guys call that exactly in english, but its the doctor that takes care of you hearing and speech etc) to do some tests, and I think I was ok then.

the second time was 2 years ago... I spent 24 hours without sleeping, because of the pain... after that, 1 or 2 weeks with blood coming down my left ear, an infection, a 100$ in antibiotics, and 2 months till my hearing was good again. the pain is like if somebody was piercing a pencil and twisting it deep inside your ear.

[Tim]

Ouch! I had a simular problem when I was 12 years old. My mother told me that my pain caused me to hit my head on my bedroom wall. I don't remember the head banging, but I do remember the pain. So I know your pain.