Question:
Last evening service I played, by friend lent me his Vox AC15. As we were practicing, my concerned sound engineer walked onstage with a decibal reader - and read 110 db three feet from my amp, which points directly towards me. (And with my master volume at 3! Why would anyone want a 30 watt tube amp, let alone a stack?!)
I think I need some good musician's earplugs. Can anyone recommend brands? Any experience with these? Should I start at a hearing clinic and get custom ones?
Answer:
I'm curious about the same thing. I have noticed it's really loud in my youth room during practice and I'm concerned about my ears. I don't wanna be going "'Eh???" to everything in thirty years.
And what'd be a good price estimate?
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Originally Posted by DaGeek I'm curious about the same thing. I have noticed it's really loud in my youth room during practice and I'm concerned about my ears. I don't wanna be going "'Eh???" to everything in thirty years.
And what'd be a good price estimate?
As far as I understand, custom molded ones run around 150-250 bucks.
But considering how much I'd be willing to pay to regain my hearing after I'd lost it, I say, fair deal.
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Originally Posted by niangelo As far as I understand, custom molded ones run around 150-250 bucks.
But considering how much I'd be willing to pay to regain my hearing after I'd lost it, I say, fair deal.
That is money well spent. You can't get your hearing back, trust me. And, tinnitis is a nuisance that most musicians who didn't wear earplugs have.
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If you don't have the cash for the custom fitted ones Hearos makes a decent high fidelity ear filter http://www.hearos.com/products-00211.htm
I'm using them while I wait to go to new york to get fitted for some. They cost around $19 CAD
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What are these custom fitted ones? If they're really worth it, I'd like to save up for some... And how would I procure some? Would I need to see an ear doctor? And last question: Would it be wise at fifteen to buy some, as I still have some growing to do?
(Okay, I lied, one more: Why are custom better? Can they hear everything, just at lower volume? That'd be nice, I don't wanna lose a few pitches of my guitar and such.)
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you'll never lose pitch (at least i don't believe so). you may lose tone. the idea of the fitted ones is that you don't lose tone because they put a limiter on that allows some of the noise through.
i just want in-ear monitors.
patrick.
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eh...go to your local sporting goods store and buy those shooter's earplugs. They'll work fine.
if you're going to drop $150-250, why not just get an attenuator to rein that sucker in?
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Originally Posted by niangelo But considering how much I'd be willing to pay to regain my hearing after I'd lost it, I say, fair deal.
"Regaining" one's hearing after losing it is, unfortunately, something that is unknown to common man. Hearing is a one-way street. Once it's gone, it's not comin' back.
Nate
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Originally Posted by nate95366 "Regaining" one's hearing after losing it is, unfortunately, something that is unknown to common man. Hearing is a one-way street. Once it's gone, it's not comin' back.
Nate
That's kind of my point... like the old man with all the money that wants to buy back his youth, or some other mythical beast.
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Originally Posted by thesteve eh...go to your local sporting goods store and buy those shooter's earplugs. They'll work fine.
if you're going to drop $150-250, why not just get an attenuator to rein that sucker in?
Because it's also the overall stage level - monitors, amps, etc.
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+1 for Hearos earplugs. I have a pair of the high fidelity plugs, about $15, and well worth it. They don't change the tones you hear like the full plug styles, just reduce the decibel level. A cheap investment I definitely recommend.
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Shooter's plugs or any other store-bought earplugs are crap. ALL of them (even the "hi-fi" ones) have very uneven attenuation across the frequency range. Anyone who suggests that they are "just fine" either hasn't played in a situation where hearing everything clearly was absolutely necessary to stay on time, etc., or is just making a broad generalization without having an honest clue about the choices. They most certainly have never used properly fitted custom plugs. I've used the cheap, store-bought ones (both foam and otherwise) and they kill most of the kick drum, most of the cymbals and the most important range of the vocals.
I got my custom molded plugs a few weeks ago. Mine are Westone ES-49 Musicians Earplugs. You can check out attenuation information along with some other research at their website. http://www.westone.com/music/elite.html#es49 Mine were $187 and change including tax, the custom molding and a fitting once they arrived. Mine arrived about 7 days total after my molds were taken. You can get your choice of one set of 25db, 15db or 9db filters with your plugs. Mine came with the 25db filters and I purchased an additional set of 15db filters from The Earplug Super Store ( http://store.yahoo.com/earplugstore/er915and25pr.html ). They are cheaper from there than buying from your audiologist and are made by Etymotic, which are the same ones that come with your Westone plugs. Etymotic also does Musicians Plugs, which I didn't look into until after I was molded for my Westone plugs because the place was nearby. Both will use the same filters, so your results shouldn't really vary. I haven't had the opportunity to use mine on stage yet, but I would imagine I will use the 15db filters for that purpose. Tonight I will be seeing Project 86 and the Showdown. I will be up front and likely directly in front of the speakers, so I will probably be able to use the 25db filters in this case. I recently saw By The Tree, Jonah33 and Inhabited and only needed the 15db filters, but I was also about halfway back in the venue.
All that said...I absolutely LOVE these plugs. You will be hard-pressed to find ANYONE who owns a set of custom plugs who will say any different than me. They are COMFORTABLE, which is the first and most important thing after the protection. They slip in and out easily once you quickly get the hang of how to twist and push in and you know how it feels when they go in properly. These things VERY evenly brought down the entire instrument level and vocal level while leaving the vocal frequency range boosted right to where I could perfectly hear. It was even hard to understand the vocals without the plugs, but I could get every single word with the plugs in. Great stuff. I'd be glad to answer any questions anybody has about them.
Answer:
Originally Posted by niangelo Last evening service I played, by friend lent me his Vox AC15. As we were practicing, my concerned sound engineer walked onstage with a decibal reader - and read 110 db three feet from my amp, which points directly towards me. (And with my master volume at 3! Why would anyone want a 30 watt tube amp, let alone a stack?!)
I think I need some good musician's earplugs. Can anyone recommend brands? Any experience with these? Should I start at a hearing clinic and get custom ones? I have some hearing loss from my hairband days and standing in front of walls of amps. I talked to my audologist a few weeks ago about fitted plugs. The come in three levels 5 db, 15db and 25db. I play with a full half stack facing me at church as my on stage monotor cauze the stage levels are so LOUD. My ears are ringing now from Sundays service I will pick up a set of the fitted plugs soon at $15 for the set.
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Originally Posted by Brent Shooter's plugs or any other store-bought earplugs are crap. ALL of them (even the "hi-fi" ones) have very uneven attenuation across the frequency range. Anyone who suggests that they are "just fine" either hasn't played in a situation where hearing everything clearly was absolutely necessary to stay on time, etc., or is just making a broad generalization without having an honest clue about the choices. They most certainly have never used properly fitted custom plugs. I've used the cheap, store-bought ones (both foam and otherwise) and they kill most of the kick drum, most of the cymbals and the most important range of the vocals. Weird. I use a set of 29dB AOsafety foam plugs and I have no trouble with them. I can still hear everything pretty clearly. I can hear the kick drum, cymbals, vocals and guitar just fine. It's certainly much better than going home from band practice and having ringing ears for the next three days. Obviously something like this isn't going to be as good as something that's custom made for your ear, but they also cost $.29 a pair which means for the price of a custom made set I can get pretty much a lifetime supply of generic ones.