how did musicians play live without hearing protection??

[bon viesta]

these days, you always hear the advice “wear hearing protection onstage if you don’t want to go deaf” in the situation of live shows. but… what in the hell were they doing back then??? you don’t hear every musician from the 60s and 70s saying they have significant hearing loss, apart from the odd pete townshend. but even so, they were loooooud back then, and they had to be. amplification was less reliant on venue speakers, and the power was in the amps and how loud the drummer was… which is suuuper loud. these days, playing drums without hearing protection (i don’t do it regularly, if at all) for me literally brings pain to my ears, and i don’t understand how musicians played live with such loud playing environments and loud instruments without being in constant pain. think beatles shows, cream shows, any rock show being onstage with a drummer.

 

[Flashback Bass]

Take a poll on how many members here on TalkBass that suffer from tinnitus and you'll get your answer!

 

[bon viesta]

Take a poll on how many members here on TalkBass that suffer from tinnitus and you'll get your answer!

off topic but i thought i could respond to anyone with this little nugget of information, but basically i’ve picked up some sort of instinctual way of protecting my hearing in situations of loud noise. when you blow in your nose, like sniff really hard, and you create basically a low pressure suction sort of thing in your head, your hearing reduces and becomes muffled. i do this playing drums (part of the reason why i don’t play drums often, it’s become increasingly unpractical to play because i’m sure this isn’t something you’re supposed to be doing to your ears) and i believe it works from basically pushing your eardrums against the ear canal, effectively muffling its movement by slightly prohibiting its vibration. not sure if that’s what is really happening, but try it out yourself and see how your hearing becomes all weird.

 

[wagdog]

WHAT?

 

[bon viesta]

correction: nope! that isn’t what happens. something with… a tube

 

[bon viesta]

WHAT?

WHAT? SPEAK UP!

 

[saltydude]

I can’t play live with hearing protection. I need to hear everything. Especially myself. I’ll wear it watching/listening to it though.

 

[G On Bass]

I knew a guy who used to tour big venues with a busy Southern Rock band back in the day. He was stage right, with his amps to his left when he looked at the drummer. He is pretty much totally deaf in his left ear. For those that refuse to wear ear protection, they might at least consider wearing something in their amp-facing ear.

 

[darren1970]

I never used to wear ear protection until one soundcheck just before Covid struck.
We finished the check and I asked what the hell the loud howl was part way through from the left PA speaker.
The guys looked at me weirdly and said what howling noise. Five minutes later I lost a good proportion of my left hearing.
It's mostly back now, but accompanied with tinnitus, so I'm never without ear plugs now at gigs or rehearsals.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Oh man, they’ve definitely had hearing loss. I played a few house parties early in my gigging days and would wake up with ringing ears (typically whichever side was closest to the drummer). I’d say that even though you haven’t heard about it, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

I got molded ear plugs that worked really well for the time that I had them (unfortunately, they got lost at some point). After that, I was typically playing larger venues with more sophisticated setups, so I was able to keep my stage volume reasonable and take advantage of PA systems to fill the club, bar, venue, etc…

My buddy and guitarist from that time kept playing after I hung up music when I started to work a more traditional career. He has really bad hearing damage now and has to wear plugs at ALL times. We were at a bar a couple years ago, and I could tel he was getting really uncomfortable as the place began to fill up with louder and louder patrons. We ended up going outside because he couldn’t stand even a modestly loud bar crowd.

 

[Slevage]

At reasonable volumes.
Marshall stacks are crazy in rooms that a single or dual twelve will do.

It doesn’t have to be lounge volume,
But 100dB is just stupid.

 

[lfmn16]

you don’t hear every musician from the 60s and 70s saying they have significant hearing loss, apart from the odd pete townshend.

Wrong. You're starting with a false premise. Maybe not EVERY musician, but I've been playing for 50 years and lot of my friends are in their 50's, 60's and 70's and I don't know a single one that doesn't suffer from some hearing loss and ringing in their ears attributable to playing.

 

[Samatza]

I stared out pretty young and worked with people older than me, sadly most of them who worked in clubs have suffered severe hearing loss.

Wear plugs, use IEM and keep the levels low, once it’s gone it’s gone.

 

[marchone]

Everyone who played rock in the 60s and 70s has hearing loss. And not only power trios.

 

[TheReceder]

At nearly 40 years of playing with out hearing protection I can attribute my lack of hearing loss to one simple 4 word phrase.

Turn that **** down.

 

[Stewie]

I can hear music and conversations with one or two people, but I can't pick out one voice in a crowd, even if I'm face to face with the person speaking. Too many hours with my ear too close to the crash cymbal

 

[jimmydean]

Stay out of "firing range" of Marshall stacks and drummers with a love of smashing their China Boy and Sizzler cymbals.......bad for the sensitive ears of the humble bass player .

 

[Matty Koff]

I can’t play live with hearing protection. I need to hear everything. Especially myself. I’ll wear it watching/listening to it though.

You can do both. They're called in-ear monitors or sound isolating headphones and it's honestly way easier to hear everything than subjecting yourself to ear fatigue and potential ear damage. My DT770 M's have a -25dB rating for outside noise with speakers that get loud enough to potentially cause damage if whoever's at the sound board isn't careful.

 

[Bill Murray]

these days, you always hear the advice “wear hearing protection onstage if you don’t want to go deaf” in the situation of live shows. but… what in the hell were they doing back then??? you don’t hear every musician from the 60s and 70s saying they have significant hearing loss, apart from the odd pete townshend. but even so, they were loooooud back then, and they had to be. amplification was less reliant on venue speakers, and the power was in the amps and how loud the drummer was… which is suuuper loud. these days, playing drums without hearing protection (i don’t do it regularly, if at all) for me literally brings pain to my ears, and i don’t understand how musicians played live with such loud playing environments and loud instruments without being in constant pain. think beatles shows, cream shows, any rock show being onstage with a drummer.

oh dude they are essentially deaf now haha. I know a few old school rockers and two of them can’t hear you when you’re talking right next to them. Same goes for old school construction workers, factory workers, and mechanics. Many of them have significant hearing loss and/or tinnitus. I have three close friends with tinnitus and my dad has had it for 15 years now. My father in law has been a plumber his entire life and is basically deaf now. An old school drummer in a soul band I sub with is deaf in one ear… The list goes on… I’m sure many of the rockers you’ve mentioned suffer from hearing issues. You just don’t hear about it because they don’t talk about it. They also have plenty of money to address the problem. Either that, they were actually wearing earplugs or had in ear monitors.

I know shows were loud in the past but I do feel as they they’ve gotten louder as time has gone on (not that they trended that way but that technological advances have granted us better sounding and louder sound systems). I’ve been to some stupid loud shows, one was Eminem in the mid 2000s which I survived but almost left and the other was All Shall Perish in 2010 which I had to leave during. Honestly surprised people didn’t start combusting, I did not know sound that loud was even possible.

Despite all of this I am still one of very few musicians I know who wear them religiously. Many people still don’t wear them at concerts… I don’t care if it’s a duo, I put them in ALL the time. I use them honestly anytime I’m in a loud environment in general. Hearing loss happens naturally over time anyways, doing damage to them will accelerate and/or exaggerate it but it’s not something you’ll be capable of comprehending until it’s too late.

 

[Matty Koff]

off topic but i thought i could respond to anyone with this little nugget of information, but basically i’ve picked up some sort of instinctual way of protecting my hearing in situations of loud noise. when you blow in your nose, like sniff really hard, and you create basically a low pressure suction sort of thing in your head, your hearing reduces and becomes muffled. i do this playing drums (part of the reason why i don’t play drums often, it’s become increasingly unpractical to play because i’m sure this isn’t something you’re supposed to be doing to your ears) and i believe it works from basically pushing your eardrums against the ear canal, effectively muffling its movement by slightly prohibiting its vibration. not sure if that’s what is really happening, but try it out yourself and see how your hearing becomes all weird.

I kind of get what you're talking about. I used to flex my ears while I played but it wasn't because it was too loud.. it was because I was trying to concentrate. Ultimately though once I realized I was doing it.. I made an effort to stop doing so because it's simply not conducive to playing music in a band setting although never once did I think it was going to protect anything