how did musicians play live without hearing protection??

[mikeoso]

Long time shooters will sometimes use wetted and wadded tissue. It’s effective.

We used to carefully cut the filters off a couple cigarettes. They did a decent job, and you could still smoke the cigs.

 

[lizardking837]

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

What if that's where carrots comes from? What if that's what people think you're saying because they can't hear what you're actually saying!

 

[packhowitzer]

Here's a list of 37 pretty famous musicians with hearing loss:

Invalid Link Removed

missing from the list is number 38 - Brian Johnson of AC/DC

 

[Upright4]

I played in some loud bands in the 60s and 70s. My left ear would sometimes go "eeeeeeeeee" at the end of the night. I remember trying earplugs, but I so disliked them that I just went without them. I know, dumb. Drums never bothered me but guitarists' high notes did. I always stood with the drums between me and the guitar amp. My ears also took a beating in Vietnam, where the volume levels could be shattering.

I have tinnitus. Wearing headphones, even at low volume, makes it worse. When I'm talking with someone in a room where other conversation is going on I find myself turning my ear towards them because I can't clearly hear what they're saying.

 

[Iristone]

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

Actually at that sort of extreme volume levels I find hearing protections help me hear better - otherwise my ears will compress and distort the signal coming into them.

 

[BlueTalon]

pretty much every boomer aged player I know has hearing damage, many quite severe. My father was in the same band for 35 years, he was the only one who used hearing protection and when they quit it was because the drummer and guitar player went completely deaf (like even with hearing aids could barely converse let alone play kinda deaf). I've always used protection and yeah, foamies are crap, but these days one need not spend a mint on westones or other customs. last few years I've been using Earpeace brand silicone plugs, they work great and are affordable (around $25usd). they come with different DB cut inserts and the lowest cut one is perfect for me (as a drummer and bass player). I prefer them to my IEMs unless it's a group I sing in. cheers

Hearing protection has come a long way. In 1979, Army training introduced me to the concept. The plugs were rubber stems with three flanges, and they worked quite well. Then in the Navy it was the yellow foamies. They're great for taming machinery noise. I liked them so much, I used them for sleeping. Unfortunately, the music and the gunfire and the machinery all took its toll anyway. Right now, as I'm writing this, there is a fan on in my house along with the AC because the weather is sinking hot, and the fan is triggering my tinnitus.

I discovered EarPeace about 9-10 years ago. Since then, I haven't been to a gig, or even a practice, without them. I keep a pair in my pockets and several in my car, even if I'm not going to be doing anything music or noise related.

For me, one of the benefits of using EarPeace (and probably any hearing protection) when I'm playing is that I can hear myself sing without needing a monitor.

 

[can you hear me]

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'm a former Audiologist, this is not protecting your hearing. Please be careful with you hearing, don't take chances. You are not going to outsmart your physiology or the physics of sound. You might be changing the perception, and maybe slightly changing the input that actually gets to your cochlea, but you are not going to make sustained loud sounds safe.

I play in some bands with moulded plugs that are quoted at 27 dB attenuation. They are recommended for industry and not music and I still wish they were stronger haha. I've had very little luck convincing fellow musos to take heed, until of course they ring me in distress with hearing loss or tinnitus. Everyone who is exposed to loud sound long enough will suffer from hearing loss. The threshold of how loud/how long varies and some people retire, get safer or die before the loss becomes an issue. It also impacts you years after the exposure in some cases and there are several groups around the world looking at pre-clinical damage, which appears to be significant for at risk groups like us.

Thanks for raising the question OP!

 

[Blankandson]

I have no idea what the specs are on the ear buds that come with the basic Behringher IEM system but they work for me. We even have one channel where we can talk to each other while playing and even almost whispering we all hear and understand what is being spoken. And our system is not super expensive!

 

[Anthony White]

There's a thing I've noticed increasingly frequently, where sound guys or DJs in their 40s and 50s and up mix the sound so that the highs - everything above about 5k - are punishingly loud. Curiously, the mix they're putting out sounds good wearing construction-style foam earplugs. My hypothesis - that they've destroyed the upper registers of their hearing, and they are mixing so that the music sounds 'normal' to them, and that the rest of the world sounds like when I'm wearing foam earplugs.

 

[Ken Morgan]

Hearing loss not necessarily music related…could be partly genetic. I wearing hearing aids, but have been playing since age 14 (65 now)…

also exposed to lots of weapons and artillery while in the Army…

my brother, who’s never been around loud music or gunfire since the late 60shas a near identical loss graphic as I have…

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

Playing in bands since 1965, our only concern was "are we loud enough". The FOH situation was not an issue. Schools, auditoriums, clubs and out doors - times have changed. No concern for our ears, just rock the audience. Probably a mistake.
What? What?

 

[singlemalt]

My hearing tests fine, but the tinnitus sucks.

A lifetime of construction work has given me a constant hiss, high pitched whine. I wear ear plugs for everything, and put the muffs on over plugs for shop work like saws, routers, and air tools.

I’ll take earplugs for any live music, bars, and most jobs. A big construction site just roars, all day long. Hell will be a concrete room and a 70lb chipping hammer, with a concrete saw singing back up. Don’t forget your respirator.

 

[bass81800]

I try to bring a pair of ear plugs everywhere I go. You never know when uncomfortable loud sounds occur. I find in social situations with music playing in the background, I can hear people better talking with the musicians plugs than without. I even used to wear musicians ear plugs to the movies. Last weekend I went to a comedy show and I did not have them with me, sorry to say. The PA was so loud it was major discomfort. My friend,who wears hearing aids, just took them out for the show. I have been good about wearing ear plugs in most every musical gigging situation over the years and have little hearing loss at almost age 70. More a jazz player than a rocker these days, though. The sad thing is that I think hearing loss is almost the default norm and the majority of people have hearing loss. That makes it difficult for those of us who still have good hearing.

 

[CryingBass]

What’s the best bass for lip reading?

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I only notice my (thankfully) slight tinnitus when I'm in the forest where it's dead silent.
It's like a constant "tv station off air" guard tone of old.
I can still hear the , ballast for florescent tubes, and a CRT warming up.
Played in ungodly loud bands, with drummers that thought Tommy Lee was weak.
Always wore some form of protection.
Headphones do MORE damage than loud amps.
Alcohol desensitization is a really under acknowledged factor in hearing loss.

 

[bobyoung53]

Long time shooters will sometimes use wetted and wadded tissue. It’s effective.

Wet toilet paper works well in a pinch.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

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.

OK, I started playing bass in 1965 although it was 1966 before I had an amp, a 1966 Fender Bassman amp. No ear protection used...Then in late 1971 while I was touring, I bought a Standel piggy-back amp that was outrageously LOUD (louder than an acoustic 360/361 and that's LOUD!). No hearing protection in use, but it flapped my bell bottoms if I stood within 3 or 4-feet of it and there were a number of times when my ears would be ringing afterwords. Toured for 3-years playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year (thought I was invincible back then). Played weekends after that. And of course, I'm still playing.

I am not deaf but I don't hear much of anything at 3KHz or higher unless I turn it up. My hearing graph just falls right off at 3KHz. Plus I also have a constant ringing at 8KHz - kind of a ssssssssss-type of sound. I have hearing aids because without them I have a hard time understanding what people are saying. Those upper frequencies are needed to "clearly" hear what's being said. And, oh yeah, I was warned to turn my hearing aids off when playing music.

So YES, USE HEARING PROTECTION! Our main choices in the 60's were cotton balls or......cotton balls. We have much better choices now.

 

[Real Soon]

They don't hear you though.

No I mean literally, they can't hear you

 

[Paul New]

I'm a former Audiologist, this is not protecting your hearing. Please be careful with you hearing, don't take chances. You are not going to outsmart your physiology or the physics of sound. You might be changing the perception, and maybe slightly changing the input that actually gets to your cochlea, but you are not going to make sustained loud sounds safe.

I play in some bands with moulded plugs that are quoted at 27 dB attenuation. They are recommended for industry and not music and I still wish they were stronger haha. I've had very little luck convincing fellow musos to take heed, until of course they ring me in distress with hearing loss or tinnitus. Everyone who is exposed to loud sound long enough will suffer from hearing loss. The threshold of how loud/how long varies and some people retire, get safer or die before the loss becomes an issue. It also impacts you years after the exposure in some cases and there are several groups around the world looking at pre-clinical damage, which appears to be significant for at risk groups like us.

Thanks for raising the question OP!

Why don't you use foam? Some are rated at more than 30db attenuation, and they are far more comfortable, not to mention cheap.

I have hearing loss related to noise exposure from music, work, and war, plus some due to Meniere's, but most of my loss is in the higher frequencies which I don't want to hear anyways. Good riddance.

 

[can you hear me]

Why don't you use foam? Some are rated at more than 30db attenuation, and they are far more comfortable, not to mention cheap.

I have hearing loss related to noise exposure from music, work, and war, plus some due to Meniere's, but most of my loss is in the higher frequencies which I don't want to hear anyways. Good riddance.

Foam rolls off the highs too much. Especially class 5, which reliably offers the attenuation you are talking about.
Although my plugs are not for music per se they are still filtered and have a flatter curve as a result.