Tinnitus

[gui_tarzan]

Do any of you suffer from tinnitus after playing music for so many years? My hearing is still very good at 51 but I have this constant high-pitched ringing in my ears that I usually only notice when it's relatively quiet in my surroundings.

[Reeltarded]

Pick attack from the strings not from the amp. It's like standing in hot coals and ignoring that to play sometimes.

[John_P_WI]

Yup, comprimised hearing, constant ringing and pain when exposed to moderate volumes.... I Just don't play much anymore.

[gui_tarzan]

I stand next to our drummer, sometimes the cymbals hurt after a while. He's a lot better than our old drummer who we called "Hulk" because he couldn't play quiet to save his life.

[mhartman]

this...

[Gaz]

My friend just got this. So sad. His whole life was centered around his hearing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperacusis

[pops]

I have not experienced silence for decades because of the ringing in my ears. The crickets have to be quite loud for me to hear them, louder than the ringing anyway. Tor those of you playing in loud environments an ear specialist told me your ear has a muscle than contracts in loud environments, but gets tired and that is when damage occurs. If you can get to a quiet place and let that muscle relax then you should be ok. So if you take a brake every 45 min. walk outside and get away from the noise to relax the ear muscle and hopefully avoid tinnitus. Still play and enjoy music, just don't do it in bars hardly ever and mostly acoustic and not so loud if it is amplified.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I stand next to our drummer, sometimes the cymbals hurt after a while. He's a lot better than our old drummer who we called "Hulk" because he couldn't play quiet to save his life.

I was gonna say . . . even in my college band got ear whistles and there was no where else to stand playing those frat gigs & what not.

One of our top local drummers learned to stop crushing his cymbals after a trip to the audiologist showed a deep ditch at 3 KHz, likely brought on by his use of power saws and no hearing protection. He trained himself to hit lighter and trust that he got it right. Which he does. Took a lot of self control but he's all sorted out now and still a local favorite.

Preserve what you have left. Earplugs or shooters muffs when using power tools. Lots of quiet time. Good to keep blood pressure under control too, that can set ears to ringing, as well as occluded neck arteries. Oh boy..... what fun heading into geezerhood.

[Gaz]

I finally got some of those musician's ear plugs that molded to your ears with the interchangeable filters. They are amazing and extremely comfortable. Should have done that 15 years ago!

[Stevem]

I have tinnitus in my right ear from the 35 years of having a drummer set up on that side of , am 59 and it started and it started some two years ago.
My hearing now tops out at 14k.

[norburybrook]

I've been wearing earplugs for 10 years now if I'm not on IEM , I'm 52. All the young guys I work with wear them as a matter of course.


I use in ear monitors 99% of the time which act as an earplug as I don't have them too loud and they cut out external sound. Makes a big difference , I'm not as tired at the end of a 2 1/2 gig and my voice doesn't get blown out singing.

I also run a studio and work as a producer but work at low levels most of the time because it's just fatiguing working for long periods.

Be aware that hearing damage can occur at a relatively low SPL if it's over a long period of time. A friend of mine developed hypercusis from teaching saxophone in small school rooms over a 20 year period 6 hours a day. New teachers now wear plugs when teaching.


Marcus

[TUBEDUDE]

That hyperacusis sounds scary! Sounds like Norton silencers, that protect the ear from high SPL spikes, won't protect you from this. I heard of some people being driven mad from hearing constant low frequency sounds no one else seemed to hear. Maybe this was hyperacusis.

[gui_tarzan]

I got a bad sinus infection several years ago and both of my eardrums burst within ten minutes of each other. It took about two weeks before I could really hear anything again and about a year before my hearing returned to normal. The only thing I lost from that experience was extreme high frequencies but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I didn't play in bars for a long time but about ten years ago I got serious again and played mostly at outdoor or large indoor events with my former band. The last few years I've been playing mostly in bars and during the open mic nights it sometimes gets pretty loud when we're not playing. We keep the volume down and the owners like that, but we don't have much control over the others. I usually go outside when it gets too loud because my ears can't take the sound pressure.

My daughter's dog has a loud bark at a certain frequency that resonates with our house doorbell (one of those old tubular types) and that almost causes me pain. One thing I can't stand is absolute quiet, that's when I hear the ringing the most but I guess I'll have to tolerate it to see if it helps.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

It seems hyperacusis eventually accompanies tinnitus. I've had tinnitus for 40+ years, and hyperacusis for probably 15 or so years. At my last band rehearsal, and our drummer uses an electronic kit, which affords us the luxury of rehearsing at a reasonable volume level, our keyboard player was taking an organ solo, and because of the hyperacusis, it was killing me. I stopped playing and held my ears until she finished her solo - she didn't even notice I had stopped playing!

[matt h]

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