Hearing protection what you use?

[Mark]

I was wondering what you guys use for hearing protection. It isn't a very rock and roll subject but it is still a great idea.

I get ringing in my ears and it is annoying. Sometimes it is worse than other times, I sure wish I wore hearing protection!

[Leo_Gnardo]

WHAT? WHATSAT YA SAY?

Foam earplugs, shooters muffs, sometimes both .

Got tinnitus anyway. Who doesn't? Someone who's deaf to their own tinnitus - is really, really deaf.

Then, there's presbycusis, loss of hearing with age. Everyone gets it, as long as you get old enough to get it. (40's +) No matter how much you may try to preserve your hearing. From "Sound System Engineering" Don & Carolyn Davis: "The listener loses high frequency acuity BUT turning up the treble is not a solution - it only annoys the listener." What to do?

[vibratoking]

Hearing problems are a problem. Luckily for me, Westone is local and I know engineers over there. I am a beta tester and get free stuff. I have the musicians earplugs and several sets of in-ear monitors. Anytime you put something in your ear, the quality of what you hear is degraded. Period. Full stop. You are cut off from the room and the experience is just not natural. You can get adapt to it with time, but it is a compromise.

Musicians earplugs are pretty good. Much better than cigarette butts or foam. In-ears can sound great. One problem is bone conduction. Low frequencies travel right through your jaw, skull, etc...and are picked up. This is what you hear when you stick your fingers in your ear. Conduct a test and turn up your hifi loud and insert your fingers. What you hear is largely low bass getting to your eardrum through bone conduction. In a loud environment you have overcome that with whatever you use. How much mids and treble you need to balance with the conduction is determined by many things, but mostly volume of the room.

There is a lot to consider here. If you sing, anything in your ear can be a pain in the ass depending on the fit of the device and the shape of your ear canal. This could go on and on...

So for me, in-ears are the best soundwise, but they require other equipment to get the sound right. Musicians earplugs are good, require little effort, but the sound is less than optimum.

[xtian]

I am glad to have discovered custom fit earplugs, which are basically the molded in-ears, without the drivers. They have plug-in filters that you can swap, including a solid plug for maximum reduction (think firing range or airshow). I use the 9dB filters.

The great thing about these is the sound, which is MUCH better than any other plug I've tried. Relatively flat sound reduction means I can still hear high frequencies, and things don't sound all muddy. I always wear them when I go to see shows, and the sound is great. I'm wearing them less and less on stage, however, because I'm playing church venues where the drummer is behind a spit shield and the onstage sound isn't frightful.

I'm a singer, so I clamped a bite bar in my teeth during the fitting, and this made the shape of the plugs more comfortable when yodeling.

Custom fit set runs about $150 at your local audiologist. Do it.

[vibratoking]

Mark - my grail would be hearing protection that reduces the volume to a comfortable and safe level without changing my natural hearing in any way. This does not exist. Don't be fooled by glowing reviews. You may find something you can live with and you won't know until you try. You may even like what you find, but no matter what you try, you will always experience negative effects. It's a question of whether you are willing to accept the effects.

I used to design digital cameras for medical applications. The first versions of Lasik used our cameras and I worked in close contact with the engineers that developed the system. Quite a few of those guys were candidates for Lasik, yet they wore glasses.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

I've had a pair of the musician's ear plugs for years. I mostly use them as a spectator though (or in restaurants when young, irresponsible parents don't feel it's necessary to take their screaming kids out of the building). I feel way too disconnected from my guitar when I use them on stage. I played in a classic rock band for the last three years: our volume was manageable when we were a four piece. When we added a keyboard player, volume levels went up to uncomfortable proportions. And I suffered through it because using the plugs doesn't give me an immediate enough sound from my guitar, if that makes sense. I'm 54, have had tinnitus for years, and I am starting to succumb to a bit of hearing loss - I assume some of it from age, and some of it from repeated exposure to loud music.

[ER]

Put your amp where you can hear it first off, poor instrument placement is the number one cause of turnituplouderitis.

After trying everything else I went back to using toilet paper, you can find it everywhere (if you go on tour in Russia you'll want to pack some anyways), it's cheap, you quickly get a feel for how much you need, doesn't cut the highs too much like foam, clean, comfortable. I would always use it for practice and not use it for performances, especially when singing. Smoking messes with your ears too, so don't smoke.

If you're in a band for a long time and practice regularly enough your ears may make the wax you need. When I was in a REALLY loud band back in the day my doctor cleaned my ears once and after leaving I kept hearing this weird sound. I finally figured out that it was my hair brushing against my shirt collar, never heard it with my ears plugged up.

Still have good hearing (up to 14k or so) at age 46. Just had it checked and they were surprised given my history. I thank toilet paper and earwax for that.

[boots]

I don't like wearing earplugs when playing guitar - it's like wearing condoms in your ears. At work around loud machines, I have found the foam ones to be the best at blocking noise. But I feel like I'm in a bubble when wearing them - makes me feel isolated from the world.

I've had hearing aids for about a year, and I love them. The guitar sounds wonderful with them, but you have to keep the volume down. I only play at home anyway. Don't know what I'd do if I ever played a loud gig.

If you don't take the hearing aids out around loud noise, they can actually cause worse hearing damage than just going without plugs. Sudden, unexpected loud noises are the real killer.

Loud music wore down my hearing slowly, but working around drill rigs was the death blow. Fortunately, the hearing aids work very well for me, and I'm trying to save what hearing I have left!

Tell me more about these "musician's ear plugs"???

[Reeltarded]

Molded custom or shaped to be eargo nomical.

[Mark]

I started wearing ear plugs when I was thirty, I found the discomfort of my ears ringing for hours afterwards was worse than feeling disconnected.

My view is everyone should either rehearse with earplugs or practise with Fender Champs or Princetons, or both. I've found I got a lot of resistance from the drummer about using small amps, and the amps were still surprisingly loud.

Unfortunately the ringing is pretty much constant these days but it is minimized by reduced exposure to loud noise. I dare say I should have sold all my amps and started building two watt amps and acoustic guitars.

My brother was telling me about these in ear monitors he uses and it makes the stage volume quite manageable.

One thing I have noticed is my perception of volume has changed, in my youth I thought a 100 watt amp was really loud, these days I think it is quite loud, I did have my ears tested and apart from the ringing they are good to 8Khz.

[vibratoking]

Here are some links:

Musicians ear plugs
http://www.westone.com/defendear/index. ... Itemid=115

In-ears:
http://www.westoneaudio.com/index.php/p ... ersal.html

I like the two ways better than the three ways.

I like the universal fit better for several reasons. The isolation is just as good a custom fit. Way more comfortable. None of the problems when singing that the custom fits create for me.

From experience, the guys at the factory do a MUCH better job on the custom fits than the ear doctor's do. YMMV.

There are some pretty good ways to use in-ears in a practical dive bar situation.