This thing is really boring.

I had to stop playing bass guitar some years ago, think the tinnitus came partly from playing late night with headphones. Now I mostly play riff in my head, counting time, hitting the four 16the note in a a row on the table instead of playing in on my Neuser Crusade 5 string or on my vintage Fender Precision US-made circa 1967. That what I call silent music. Better than hearing a different "A" between the left hear (the bad one) and the right one (the good one)

I forget it when I'm a Stones a show. I forget in a a show, in a bar, because of the good mood. But on a daily basis, makes difficult to listen to music - because it hurts

A good thing is they said it comes from stress. So I was stressless it would be better, I suppose. But it would not me be then.

Here there someone who had successfully cope tinnitus and music ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-12-04 13:39 by bv.

Fortunately, not yet. But I consider buying earplugs for rehearsals as we play really loud in a very small room...

Eric Clapton now said that he has it from his day's with the Cream...or is it
from hearing all the bickering between Jack and Ginger;

Headphones..especially the in-ear kind, are the biggest culprits.
Because there's no sensation of loud bass moving the air around and kicking us in the guts,we don't realise how loud we're listening !
Young folks these days are going to suffer more than us older guys did in this respect... because they all seem to live with earphones permenantly plumbed into their lug holes !



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-09-13 19:01 by Spud.

I talked with musicians in Cuba some years ago. At least 50 % endured hear loss. But they don't stop. To the contrary. The put the volume louder.

The Who's Pete Townshend talked about his battle with tinnitus a few years ago, and if I recall the quote I read correctly, he blamed it not so much on the Who's gigantic stage volume in the old days, but on the years of wearing headphones in the studio that came later on in the '70s and '80s...

Hey... Eric Clapton.. Pete Townshend... seems the poor lonesome tinnitus boys are in good company... And the fact is : they keep on playing, don't they ?

So joker, why not hand your Fender over to me ;-)

Here is a link that can probably prove helpful (I haven't checked its content myself, but picked it up on the Vinyl Asylum which is a very rich source of information and links).

[www.tinnitus.org.uk]


I have a mild case myself. Luckily for me I can (still) live with it comfortably.

...The most both hilarious and sad anecdote about Townshend's hearing issue is the tale of the drum kit explosion on the Smothers Brothers show, as told in The Kids Are Alright DVD booklet. Moon would have brided the TV stage hand to DOUBLE the bass drum explosive charge for the apotheosis ending of My Generation. When the blast happens on the film, you can see that PT stands in front of the kit. Then you see that his hair are all straight up on their ends, then he ruffles them and smiles silently to John Smothers who comes over applauding: PT had turned apparently COMPLETELY deaf for several minutes...

I used to suffer from tinitus when I was about 10. Whenever there was quiet, I'd get the ringing in my ears. The only time I get it now is when I come out of a nightclub or a loud concert, as I'm sure many do.

i have it from playin LOUD music (think Marshall Stacks & Ampegs) for 25 years.......it doesnt go away.....but usually i dont notice it.......but when it's really quiet i hear it.........hope i dont go deaf

rknuth : they are still very nice to see... Think to become an air bass guitar player.

I developed tinnitus when I was 11 or 12. I had ear problems as a child - punctured ear drum, ear infections from swimming, swimmer's ear. I'm now 46 years old. The ringing is continual. I don't wear earplugs to concerts.

I sympathize with your problem. I don't play an instrument for a living, or have to be around the high volume everyday. I do work in a production environment where there is constant humming.

Ear plugs are the only preventative measure to it getting worse.

There is no need to stop playing bass guitar - just no need to play it loud or with earphones.

Tinnitus is oly one problem. You can get noise induced hearing loss and not even know it! You start to red lips without realising it. Then it is too late. However, tinnitus is the worse. We have all come out from loud gigs with ringing in our ears - we only notice it when we try to get to sleep. That's the worst thing for mild cases - getting to sleep with this constant sound. For really bad cases, it can drive you crazy. Not just ringing but wild UFO noises and low frequency noise all day long. Imagine being tortured by sound 24 hours a day with no cure ever!

Anyway, I only have a very mild case - caused by stupidly sticking my head in a bass bin at manic street preachers gig in the early 90s when I was young.

I wear earplugs for band rehearsals now and am much more careful.

Wow. I have it continually as well. I'm 48, and also had ear problems as a child and was "smart" enough to wear headphones fom about age 18 through 35 seemingly constantly. Last year, I had 13 attacks of vertigo from Jan '05 through April '05 to go along with a huge increase in the ringing. I got checked for Meniere's Disease, which luckily I don't have, but I'd recommend anyone with tinnitus to get checked for Meniere's as a precaution.

At 45 I now have to have a fan running in my bedroom just to help
reduce the ringing(and more) sound to go to sleep.

LIMIT YOUR USE OF HEADPHONES!!

Tinnitus is torture and one of the reasons why I never stay and watch loud warm-up acts or post-show gigs. The human air is fine tuned and not built for loud music. It is protected by the body's smallest muscle - the stapedius. This little muscle is tightening up and keeping the large vibrations from damaging your hearing for approx 2 hours. The longer the loud music last or the louder it is the sooner the stapedius will fail to protect.

So just a piece of advice. Don't ever get exposed to loud music for more than a couple of hours, and if it is more than 100 dB or so, use plugs or move away. The tinnitus - ringing in your ears - will grow stronger and stay in your hearing for 24 hours as you get older. There is no treat for it. Except for avoiding long lasting and loud sound. And by the way, gunshots and other instant sound will be too fast for the stapedius, and damage your hearing instanly. Chainsaw, airplane noise and all other high-pitch energy-rich sound is also very damaging. Respect your hearing so that you can enjoy the Stones as much as possible, and also to enjoy peace and quiet in your older days, by prtecting them!

Bjornulf

good advice BV- having been a 'mosh-pit' boy at many gigs, in days gone by, i have certainly detected a deteriation in my hearing.

I always carry a pair of ear plugs with me to shows these days-
however great the music, it's not worth damaging your health for.

If it ain't loud, it ain't good.

JumpingKentFlash

JumpingKentFlash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If it ain't loud, it ain't good.

pardon?

Adrian-L Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> pardon?


I mean: I hear rock music for many hours each day, and it's loud. It has to be loud.

JumpingKentFlash

pardon?

Adrian-L Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> pardon?


Huh? What's that? :-)

JumpingKentFlash

sjs12 : tinnitus is always linked to a weak ear, so most of the time it is also linked to a weak hearing.

I can play bass, but as the "worst" has arrived (losing 30% on the left ear, ), I follow my doctor's device. Spare you ears, go to some shows if you want with earplug, but protect you ears on a daily basis.

In fact, I could still play, but
- certainly not in a garage band - think more a accoustic thing
- most of it : i fear this could cause further damage so it is a status quo (not the STATUS QUO band, SO LOUD) : avoid the big bass vib in my home, but going to see the Stones over the world

In fact, after stop playing loud three years ago, my hear loss was contained - the damage is still there, but this has not worsen in 3 years - I'm checked every 6 months for that.

>rock music for many hours each day, and it's loud. It has to be loud.<

Loudness in playing back stereo music, even in RnR, is psycho-acoustic to a certain extent. In Led Zeppelin, for instance, you often have Page playing loudly but mixed in quite a subdued fashion, way in the background, against Bonham's loud drum kit. Still this is loud RnR to most people.

Sure. But also when I hear Zep it's very loud. You get the feeling more when you hear it loud.

JumpingKentFlash

That's because you hear different frequencies at a different relative loudness for different volumes. At higher volumes, the bas sounds louder to the human ear than at lower volumes.

However, it is not just a case of how loud the music is but also how long you listen to it. For example, if you listen to music at 80 dBA in your room you could listen to it for 8 hours with virtually no risk to your hearing. However, if the volume is at 90 dBA you can only listen for 1 hour before serious risk of damage occurs. At 100 dBA we are talking 5 minutes.

Of course, this is only if you listen to music for this length of time every day. You can get away with 100 dBA for a couple of hours as long as you don't do this often. If you do, you will start to get hearing damage. You won't notice it while you are young but it will add on the the natural hearing loss we all get as we get older and make things very difficult in later life. It also affects the higher frequency sounds more than lower ones - typically meaning difficulty in hearing consonants (s, t, k etc.) in speech or, for example, cymbals in music!

Tinnitus tends to occur from regular exposure to very loud music. WHenever you hear a ringing sound in your ears after a gig, you have done permanent damage and killed off many of your hair cells in the ear. They will never grow back. Do that often enough and it is cumulative. Again, as you get old you will start to notice the effect more and more and by that stage it is too late. You won't notice it or even care when you are young.

I don't where earplugs to gigs but I do for band rehearsals. If I was gigging more often I would wear earplugs for gigs.

I don't wear earplugs for seeing other bands though.

OK.
My stereo amp/preamp's volume knob indicates approx. -45 dB at the level I love to spin music on my favourite headset (closed can type). This is a 45 Watts RMS/channel amp.
With the "live" speaker cabinets, I may turn it up, during festive musical occasions, to about half the knob's course, which then is -20dB
Would you say I play with fire (no pun intended) then? (I am 48 and have mild tinnitus)
Of course there is a range. For instance, no way I will turn this damn loud new Rolling Stones CD more than one or two notches on the cans. While my Shure phono cartridge requires a lot more juice.
Problem is with the normal house activities here, I often need to put the cans on, and I don't know HOW to measure dB loudness on cans. I do have an electronic soundmeter of apparent good accuracy, but how do you use such on headphones? There must an artificial "listening head" somewhere to measure that.

I play guitar, but I have to play with earphones because of NEIGHBOURS.