Hearing protection

[Heritage Softail]

I have had a low level ringing in my ears from loud noise exposure. Could blame it on music, years of target shooting, Harley straight pipes, time in the engine room while in the Navy. Bottom line is lots of musicians have some degree of hearing loss, ear ringing, or some other ear issues.

Guitar Center has HEAROS, an even across the freqency band attenuating ear plugs. Not the traditional foam plug that cuts the frequency bands we are mostly concerned with. Anyone ever use them? Have any other ideas on hearing protection? I see some bands with players wearing headsets to control noise and get a good monitor mix.

 

[njsurf]

I use hearos from time to time.
They work well, I just barely put them in.
If you sing as well its a little more diffucult, as you hear your voice way louder than anything else.
They take a little to get use to. I felt a little disoriented when I first used them.
My band has worked on keeping our volume down, so now I don't have to use them as much.
Either way its better than losing your hearing.
Best of luck.

Jeff

 

[ryjan]

I use Hearos anytime I play at practice volumes or higher. I like them because I can still talk and hear at normal volumes but it attenuates the loud stuff.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Just bought some Vater ear protection. It was in the drummer section of the store. I blasted the radio in the car with them. They did work as advertised, attenuating volume without totally eliiminating the high frequency.

 

[stephen sawall]

I have them on my key ring. I have them with me all the time. It has been that way more than ten years. Different people like different makes. Some people like the cheap throw aways best. I like the ones that just roll off the high end. Test a few ..... they are all very different.

There is no good reason to loosing you ability to hear any faster than we already are. :?: :arrow: :idea:

 

[YellowJacket]

When I was 20 I was at a MxPx show at Les Rondevous in Winnipeg. I did not bring hearing protection and as I recall, the levels kept getting louder and louder. For the next few days, everything sounded distant and I could hear a crinkling sound in my ears. After that, I wore hearing protection at not only every rehearsal but also when using loud equipment such as a riding mower or a weed eater at work. I got made fun off by lots of the local guys for being anal about levels ("Pete Townsend is half deaf and he's still cool . . .") but some of them whined to me several years later about the hearing not being what it once was. Thankfully, I can still hear alright. I need it for my string playing!

 

[TimeSignature]

Which product by Hearos? I see there are a few different kinds of hearing protection geared towards musicians.

 

[Mongo1]

When I was 20 I was at a MxPx show at Les Rondevous in Winnipeg. I did not bring hearing protection and as I recall, the levels kept getting louder and louder. For the next few days, everything sounded distant and I could hear a crinkling sound in my ears. After that, I wore hearing protection at not only every rehearsal but also when using loud equipment such as a riding mower or a weed eater at work. I got made fun off by lots of the local guys for being anal about levels ("Pete Townsend is half deaf and he's still cool . . .") but some of them whined to me several years later about the hearing not being what it once was. Thankfully, I can still hear alright. I need it for my string playing!

That reminds me of the night I saw 'Man O War' in Queens (LaMores?). I ended up pushed against the PA with my head right on the grill. It was sn incredible show, but freakin LOUD! in desperation I was wetting napkins and packing it into my ears until it was tolerable.

At the end of the night I pulled it out and headed home. The next morning I couldn't hear a thing. Off to the doctor to find out I had a hardened paper plug deep into in both ears. The doc went through the process of pulling it out. It was painful, like he was ripping out my ear drum or something. When he was done the world was back and I learned a great lesson.

Oddly enough, I get s crinkling sound in my right ear now that drives me nuts. Like someone is crumpling cellophane in my ear. Two ear specialists don't have a clue as to why.

 

[YellowJacket]

That reminds me of the night I saw 'Man O War' in Queens (LaMores?). I ended up pushed against the PA with my head right on the grill. It was sn incredible show, but freakin LOUD! in desperation I was wetting napkins and packing it into my ears until it was tolerable.

At the end of the night I pulled it out and headed home. The next morning I couldn't hear a thing. Off to the doctor to find out I had a hardened paper plug deep into in both ears. The doc went through the process of pulling it out. It was painful, like he was ripping out my ear drum or something. When he was done the world was back and I learned a great lesson.

Oddly enough, I get s crinkling sound in my right ear now that drives me nuts. Like someone is crumpling cellophane in my ear. Two ear specialists don't have a clue as to why.

Is that even morally right to deafen people that much at a concert?

The only time I had the cellophane crinkling sound was after the MxPx incident. I have had other sort of similar problems but that is wax related. I need to get a cleaning every couple of years.

 

[Mongo1]

The M-O-W concert was probably 30 years ago for me. I never go to a concert without at least bringing hearing protection as an option. Since then I abused my hearing all on my own in rock bands and even more as a diesel mechanic. It wasn't until I started putting 20k+ miles year on my bike (loud pipes) that I noticed the ringing in the mornings. For the last 5 or so years I started wearing plugs everytime I ride. It helped a lot.

The crinkling started in the last year. At first I thought my IEM's were distorting only to discover they were fine, it was me. No more running FOH audio for me since I can't trust my ears...

Yesterday I rolled tubes for several hours and was doing lots of it at gig volumes. I woke up today hearing a chorus in my head of something that sounds like a combination of tones from 4k to 16k.

 

[MesaGod666]

Starkey makes phenomenal and affordable custom made hearing protection. I have three sets of noise reducers (2 Concert Strength, 1 Jam Session Strength) plus my IEM's. Look into it.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Starkey makes phenomenal and affordable custom made hearing protection. I have three sets of noise reducers (2 Concert Strength, 1 Jam Session Strength) plus my IEM's. Look into it.

Do you have the Tunz Musicians earplugs? I found those on the web site.