Hearing protection during practice at home

DrummerChas · Sep 21, 2011

What type of hearing protection, if any, do you use when practicing at home and still be able to hear your tone well?

During rehearsal in band I'm using Shure 535 in-ear monitors which work great, but when I'm at home, it's just me and the amp and I like to open it up and play at 90w when possible so that I can get the tone I like. The trouble is that after just a short time, my ears are ringing a bit and I find myself stuffing the proverbial cotton in them which helps reduce noise but kills the tone I'm hearing. Is there some type of hearing protection that can protect your ears but still let the good tone pass through?

Any advice is appreciated - Thanks!

scoden · Sep 21, 2011

You should get a custom earplug made up for your ears by an audiologist. They take an impression of your ear canal and fit custom plugs with 5 , 15 , or 25 db attenuation with no loss of balance between lows and highs .

Called Musician earplugs may cost 150 - 200 for pair ...well worth the investment.

DrummerChas · Sep 21, 2011

Awesome - thanks for the quick response! I just set an appointment for Tuesday afternoon with an audiologist. I guess I will just have to keep the amp turned down till I get the earplugs. I'm going to have them make molds for my in-ear monitors too.

Thanks again!

MusicManJP6 · Sep 21, 2011

Wow, I would love to get some molded earplugs...

FFFDFEFRFKFFF · Sep 25, 2011

If you don't want to wait/spend the money I'd just get some Hearos. I have used them for a while now and they work very well and they're "only" about $15 and they're washable/reusable.

MusicManJP6 · Sep 26, 2011

FFFDFEFRFKFFF said:
If you don't want to wait/spend the money I'd just get some Hearos. I have used them for a while now and they work very well and they're "only" about $15 and they're washable/reusable.

I have the hi-fi series and they are better than the cheaper alternatives, but they still leave something to be desired.