Keeping Motivated

[stefandisgust]

Im 17 and play bass and give it all every jam but latley ive been having a bit of trouble.Last year I read all about hearing loss and started wearing plugs.It scared the life out of me but its Smartest thing I ever did and its been nice but I cant help to think, "Man my hearing would be killer if I hadent played all those shows.."
I seriusly cant sleep without thinking about it.Anyone have the problem?

[morf]

I'm 21. I never used ear plugs. My hearing is fine. It may go bad at some point, but right now, I take hearing tests, and get great results. You're only 17, you have absolutly nothing to worry about, your hearing is just fine, keep wearing those plugs and dont give it another though.

[stefandisgust]

I guess it all really depends on what kind of music we're talking about here
But thank you for the response

[Ravens]

i wouldnt advise to not wear earplugs, but i am 29 and i have never used earplugs and on avarage rehearsed three times a week and played aboute live show a month for fifteen years now and i have excellent hearing. I have been in death/thrashbands, rock bands etc with musicians who have great big amps!

Dont worry!

[invader3k]

It's never too late to start wearing ear plugs. There's really no reason to not use them.

[slamjet]

I've been working live sound since I was 17. I've had to set up in front of speakers, be in LOUD rooms and use headphones turned way up to que the next recording (mostly stage and corporate stuff). I now have a permanent ring in my ears. Never goes away. As an added bonus, I also have a hard time picking out conversations from the background noise. I'll have the TV turned up loud, too loud for me, but I'll still have a hard time getting the dialog of the charachters. I'm not sure if it's the damage or the years of training to listen for the tone, not what the person is saying.

If you go to Rite-Aid, you'll find that ear plugs come in different levels of protection. I would imagine that you don't want to block out everything so you can hear your band mates (never played in a band so I'm taking a stab at it here) so get one with the lowest protection. They'll still provide enough to protect you. Use the soft, maluable kind, not the rubber ones. Rubber ones give you headaches, litteraly.

You can never be too carefull with your hearing.

[jimbob]

http://www.hearos.com/products-00211.htm

Get these...save your hearing. Didn't take long to get used to.

[stefandisgust]

Thanks guys Ive actuly been using foamies the box says the cut 29 db is that enough?I shove em way in too
After about 3 jams they became habit

[Zappstorius]

There's no reason NOT to wear earplugs, although I don't do it very often. But please don't live your life in regret over not doing it for a little while. We could all live until we're 144 if we don't eat red meat, don't smoke, don't drink and JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS!

That's until we find out 50 years from now that cell phones we the real killer and we all have tumors growing out of the side of our heads.

[morf]

Doesn't really matter what kind of music. I play alot of different stuff, including death metal with my little bro and that gets quite loud. Wear earplugs, but dont lose sleep over your hearing, its most certainly just fine.

[invader3k]

Yeah, the "mushroom cap" style like those Hearos are what I use. They are effective, and you still hear everyone in the band just fine, once you get used to them.