Re: [Harp-L] Re: Hearing yourself

["Mike and Beverly Rogers" <mbrogers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's another one with tinitis.  I'm 65, and took some bad hits, when I was
young.  I stayed out of loud bands for years, but now, my son and I play
together.  It gets loud, and I wear molded ear filters.  Dunno how long I'll
last with the volume.  Definitely reccomend the filters, even if it does
alter what you hear.  It takes the pain away  Bullfrog
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fjm" <mktspot@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "h-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Hearing yourself


> Or as was pointed out hearing at all at the age of 56.  Clearly
> escalation in terms of volume is not a viable long term strategy.
> Coming to grips with this has been an arm wrestle for me.  I currently
> play in a 3 piece, harmonica, bass, guitar.  Sometimes we'll add drums.
> I'm using a 5 watt amplifier.   I can hear myself in the mix quite well.
>   I used to play in a 6 piece band, electric bass, drums 2 guitars and a
> sax along with me on harmonica. In that band I used various amps, Twin
> Reverb, Bassman RI, Concert, Blonde Basman head into a 3X10 bottom.
> Hearing myself was always somewhat of a struggle and an arms race.
> Using hearing protection helped but it becomes difficult to gauge your
> relative volume and you lose the sound of the amp tone.  Ultimately I
> opted out of the blues band club scene.  I migrated into a Country and
> Western pick up band which was a 4 piece and a lot quieter but it was
> still too much volume for me.
>
> Exposing your ears to high spl (sound pressure levels) causes hearing
> damage. period.  It's a health issue.  If you're lucky you'll just get
> the ensuing tinnitus and hearing loss.  If you're unlucky you'll end up
> dizzy and unable to play music because of an acquired sensitivity to
> loud noises.  As a generation grows up headsets plugged into I-pods car
> stereos booming the health issue of significant hearing loss will only
> become more widespread. Little Walter didn't grow up playing music in
> the same environment as we have.  Amps were smaller and a lot less
> powerful.  Electric bass was new to the scene and stand up was the norm
> well into the 50's.  I really never thought I'd live to see the day
> where cigarette smoking in bars was banned in several states.  It was
> just something I put up with to play music.  The reality is the choice
> is ours.  Playing loudly is a choice and you can choose to not do it.
> Sure it's a lot of work to find like minded people and put together a
> quieter more dynamic group but in the long run you'll have more fun and
> live to hear into your 60's instead of starting to lose the middle
> frequencies in your 30's.  People rave about the Jason Ricci shows but
> the reality is he plays too damn loud too.  Exposing yourself to high
> spl is flat out risky behaviour and a health risk and it's a matter of
> when not if it'll come back to bite you.  I have yet to meet a 50
> something railroader that doesn't say what every second word if he/she
> is in a noisy environment.  fjm
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