There hasn't been one time I haven't used hearing protection. I use standard rubber earplugs. You just push them in. I hated the foam ones, because you had to roll them up and wait for them to expand again.
Hey gang.
It's been a while since I've held a pair of drumsticks… That is unless there was some turkey on them!
Seriously though, I do play an ekit at church once a week, but today was the first day that I drummed at home on my Gretsch in ages. It felt great!!! It was so much fun but after 30 minutes my ears hurt. They weren't ringing, but I could feel that it was time to stop, even though I didn't want to.
Who uses hearing protection and if so what kind do you use?
Kevin
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Drummers can be very tempomental.....
I use custom made ear filters. Well worth the price.
I just use a pack of 100 earplugs you can pick up at a drug store, Hearo's are over rated in my opinion but I know some people find that they preserve the sound better than cheap ones. You can also buy headphones but that's a whole other topic with a list of preferences, if you decide on headphones I think Vic Firth's Isolation headphones are the best quality at a fairly cheap price.
Wear hearing protection.
For home jams I just use shooter's ear muffs. They really bump the low end, which sounds good at home. For gigs I used Earasers or Etymotic brand ear plugs.
Hey Cycledude, I haven't heard from you for a long time.
I use hardware store's generic earmuffs at home, shooter's earplugs for gigging.
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Shooter muffs at home, high end ear plugs at gigs.
I actually prefer the "muffled" sound as it removes a lot of the harshness that comes with snare/cymbal hits.
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I agree with the shooter muffs for some reason the drums sound better.
Best way to protect your ears is to listen to good music.
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I believe it's the high frequencies that our ears aren't too happy with. The muffs filter out a lot of that.
Between that and the deep lows from the bass drums and floor toms, our ears really take a beating having to reproduce that extremely large range of frequencies.
Last edited by Bish; 03-10-2015 at 08:54 AM.
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Drummers are funny. They search the world over for the most exotic wood drums, spend inordinate piles of $$, Go on drum forums to debate the virtues and nuances of various woods, heads, cymbals, etc....
Then slap ear plugs on
all the best...
Recommended on this forum are Alpines, I picked up a pair, they are really good. Sometimes a bit too good however and I haven't tried using a lower setting (laziness). In a pinch, there's always toilet paper!
Once a month I go to a practice place to play on an a-kit (I have an ekit at home and only gig on my borrowed a-kit), and when playing along tomusic, i listen through ear buds, then put my better headphones I use for the ekit on top of those. You might want to try that if you play along to music
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I developed tinnitus very early in my drumming "career." I could not stand the sound of foam ear plugs or shooter's headphones. Somehow I ran across the trick of using toilet paper wetted with water. Don't laugh. The water allows the paper to transmit high frequencies, yet there is a very dramatic lowering of the overall spl. Years ago I had a custom set of Westone ER series attenuators with two sets of inserts, one for 15db attenuation and the other for 25db. These work wonders and have saved my ears from further damage.
The only disadvantage I've encountered from the Westones, though, is that they make me sing flat. I don't know why this happens, but I just can't hit an exact note while wearing them. And occationally I'll forget to bring them along, so it's back to the wet tp! The wet tp doesn't cause me to sing flat!!!????????
GeeDeeEmm
To CycleDude,
I don't know how old you are, but no matter how old (and if you're young, this is even more important), DO NOT play drums without hearing protection. If your ears are feeling the fatigue, or pain, of noise, this is your body telling you something. I've lived with tinnitus for almost 40 years, probably mostly the result of loud music in my youth, but also exposure to industrial noise without using hearing protection. Once you've damaged your hearing, that's it. Maybe you'll be lucky and only slowly lose your hearing in the upper frequencies without the 24/7/365 ringing (or hiss or high pitch tones) that characterizes tinnitus, but don't risk it. I use noise blocking headphones, now, to prevent aggravating the tinnitus, and to preserve what little hearing I have left, but whatever works for you, USE IT! Please!
Now, just a tiny bit less than an absolute drum newbie
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I guess I'm the only dissenter. For me ear plugs are for blocking out things that I DON'T want to hear. I think I might start wearing them just to filter out nagging wives and bad music.
all the best...
Butch do you wear hearing aids. I mean if your ears are shot.
I'm totally sold on the earaser ear plugs. They have a very natural sound while protecting the ears. The best part is that they lower the volume evenly, not just cutting out the high end frequencies. I have a few friends that use them for front of house mixing too.
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