Tinnitus

  • Thread starter Thread starter Victory Pete
  • Start date Start date
Sorry if I dont get all warm and fuzzy, You have continually attacked and insulted me for months.
VP

That's because you are a dumbfuck. I personally hope your tinnitus kills you. :)


I wear ear protection all the time. I never practice or gig without it. So far, I'm good to go.
 
Aspirin will make your ears ring - the ringing was the marker for doctors when prescribing aspirin for arthritis. Take until your ears ring - then back off one!
For me - headphones (I've not been a fan of earplugs fortunately) did the damage, some loud mistakes with a guitar & bass and a couple of pain inducing gigs rubbed it in. Mowing the lawn wearing a walkman & trying to play it louder than the motor mower is one of the main dumb things I did.
I have it 24 hours a day, every day - in fact I'm sitting kn a quiet office with only the hum of the computer AND I HAVE IT NOW!
I can cope with it most of the time but, like supercreep, sleep is illusive - I HAVE to go to sleep with music playing - specifically something that has a decent amount of the frequencies the ringing is at. I get through a lot of albums in a week - so there is an up side - mind you my missus can't come to bed at the same time or soon after as she can't cope with any noise when it's sleep time. IF she beats me to bed & sleep & use a CD walkman with light weight phones - means I have to stay on my back & still to be comfy & get to sleep but that's what it takes.
OH, I do love a rainy, stormy night - that's all the masking I need sometimes.
If I had my time again - I'd ease up on the cassette walkman volume BIG TIME (I assume noise cancelling headphones MAY have been a good thking but then again I haven't looked into it in terms of relative volume etc) & be more careful around electric guitars.
Oh, it REALLY effect smusic for me - I can't hear some freqs anymore because they match the ringing so my mixes often have rogue elements that I have to get others to diagnose for me. I've tried using freq analysis to assist but when I need to trust my ears - I CAN'T!
Would I plug up - with the wonderful stuff available these day - MY OATH!
"I use hearing protection like I use seat belts, when I feel they are necessary."
I had a good laugh with that line.
I can see your face pasted to the inside of the windscreen telling the cop, "I wasn't speeding, the other meathead caused the crash" or 5 mins after meeting a telegraph pole after a blow out you look up at the ambo & mumble, "I feel the need for a seat belt now".
It's rather like folk just beginning to feel the need to address pollution & carbon emmissions.
 
Last edited:
I have dealt with tinnitus most of my life. I hear it almost all the time but oddly enough my hearing is better then most people I know. Sounds strange. (no pun intended. I still listen to my music at extreme levels, but when it comes to the TV I like it almost as low as it can go and the wife hates that.
 
Maybe pouring talcum power into your ears might rejuvinate them.
 
My dad suffers from tinnutus. There are many types. Some can be solved through therapy or surgery and are directly related to the ears. Some are related to a problems with the brain. And in other cases, the cause can't be identified. My dad has all sorts of examinations from a doctor looking in his ears, to MRI and CAT scans. They have not yet been able to find a cause. It only really bothers him when he tries to sleep. And of course he can't because the tinnitus drives him nuts. It's been said that smoking pot can help, from one perspective to reduce the noise, from another to help with sleep. He's not yet tried that but he said he's not far off.

I would advise getting to the doctor ASAP. If it is the case that your ears are damaged in some way, it's better to see as soon as possible if you can get them fixed.

I also suffer from very mild tinnitus, the intensity of which varies. I only notice it when I try to sleep. But I smoke pot so I don't have any trouble with that.
 
I also suffer from very mild tinnitus, the intensity of which varies.

Likewise. Mine, I think, is always there, but I only notice every now and again. And I'm responding in this thread, because as I was reading the assorted responses, I became aware of it . . . auto-suggestion, perhaps?
 
I would advise getting to the doctor ASAP. If it is the case that your ears are damaged in some way, it's better to see as soon as possible if you can get them fixed.


I did ask a doc once while in for other reasons. He said if it was temporary, steroids might help. If it was permanent, there's not much to be done. He gave me a prescription for prednizone, but it didn't help.

And a scary anecdote: My mother in law has it bad. She's going crazy with it and she's never been in an enviroment that would cause ear damage. It just came up on its own.
 
I was just reading Pop Sci, and they had a paid advertisement somewhere near the back of the mag about some herbal concoction that's supposed to alleviate Tinninus. I immideately thought of this thread.

Personally, I think this is a crock of shit and it's taking advantage of not having to be under the bullshit detecting eye of the FDA, but if you're into this kind of thing, take a look here:

http://www.quietrelief.com/

So some of the participants in this thread might make the perfect guinea pigs for this company. I can already read the testimonials in my head:

"I used to not be able to hear when my clients would ask me what the best mic for rap vocals under $100 was, but now I can hear them crystal clear!"

"Now that my Tinnitus is gone, I can finally hear the difference between a tube amp and a modeller!"

"Now that I can sleep through the night, my senses are starting to come back to me and I realized that extreme death metal is actually one of the worst genres of music to come along since boy bands!"
 
And a scary anecdote: My mother in law has it bad. She's going crazy with it and she's never been in an enviroment that would cause ear damage. It just came up on its own.

Same goes for my dad. I suggested that all the years he's spent working in rooms with computers and servers humming might have caused it. I've heard that it can have that effect. Your ears adapt to the noise in order to kind of shut it out, and when you eventually get out of the environment, it's like an inverse effect.

I think that's the first time I notice my own mild tinnitus of an evening. When I switch my computer off. I'm in front of it constantly. All day at work. All evening at home. Often sleep in front of it. I turn the computer off and it's this totally alien silence, that's when I notice it.

I've been trying to come up with new things for my dad to try to fix the problem. Apparently some nights he absolutely dispairs. Maybe I'll send him some pot.
 
I think there's a certain amount of genetics involved also. I've been playing for 45 years ....... wear hearing protection rarely if I play with someone who plays stupid loud .... and I have no problems. No tinnitus ..... no hearing loss to speak of although the usual that you get with age .... but I still hear fine for tuning pianos and such.
Yet other guys I know have serious tinnitus problems even though they've never played that much or anywhere near as loud as I did in the 70's and 80's.
Genetics can be a bitch or your best friend.
 
My hearing is mostly intact, at an age when I see guys with hearing aids....

But the scariest thing is that, when I go out to clubs, the bands are all playing stupid loud. I'm a rocker, and I don't play quietly, but damn! There's a point where it all turns to mush. When I play in bands, I insist on a low-decibel stage environment. Being "mature" means that most of my band-mates are past the LOUD phase themselves, but keeping it down to a low roar onstage requires constant vigilance. Luckily, older drummers play with more finesse than the young guys, so they don't bash for the sake of bashing.

As much.
 
My hearing is mostly intact, at an age when I see guys with hearing aids....

But the scariest thing is that, when I go out to clubs, the bands are all playing stupid loud. I'm a rocker, and I don't play quietly, but damn! There's a point where it all turns to mush. When I play in bands, I insist on a low-decibel stage environment. Being "mature" means that most of my band-mates are past the LOUD phase themselves, but keeping it down to a low roar onstage requires constant vigilance. Luckily, older drummers play with more finesse than the young guys, so they don't bash for the sake of bashing.

As much.

word......
 
Mine is permanent, but not intrusive. I hear it when I'm in a quiet environment.

Oddly enough, I got it while building my studio in the basement of my previous house. I used a Ramset to drive nails into the concrete. :o I couldn't find my earplugs and thought it was going to be quick and not too loud. I have been in louder environments, but I guess this put me over the edge.

holy shit! thats what that ringing is? tinnitus?

everytime im anywhere thats somewhat quite i get this ringing noise. i always wondered what it was and wondered if anyone else heard it. i thought i was just crazy or it was just natural or something...
 
My spousal unit suffers from this....and she has not exposed herself to unsafe noise levels. She only started going to listen to live music when she met me.:)
However, she was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease a couple of years ago. Since then I've met others with this condition...she's lucky. Her case is apparently mild, but when she's not taking her daily meds (diuretic + anticholinergic) she can have some severe symptoms...including ringing to the extent she can't hear, period.

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/balance/meniere.asp
 
I also have to row in on this and say that people play way too loud, be it during practice or at gigs. Not only is it terrible for your hearing, it sounds awful. I was asked by a friend to sit in on a practice and I was pretty appalled at how loud it was...I was running my 60 Watt TSL 601 flat out and the guy had a 100-watt Line 6 running on some 'distortomax' setting. Not only could I not hear anything, I left the practice with my ears ringing, feeling dizzy and nauseous.

I think people tend to play too loud while practicing is that they try to view their practices in a 'mix' context; for instance, in a mix it's easy to bring the drums back a little. But when you're practicing, the only way to keep the drums down is to turn up the amps (in my experience, controlling the dynamics of an acoustic kit is tough, especially for inexperienced drummers).

The point is that when we practice, we try to get things as sonically pristine as a commercial CD which has been tracked in isolation, mixed and mastered. And it's just not possible to recreate this in a live context, no matter how you push the volumes.
 
http://www.quietrelief.com/

So some of the participants in this thread might make the perfect guinea pigs for this company. I can already read the testimonials in my head:

"I used to not be able to hear when my clients would ask me what the best mic for rap vocals under $100 was, but now I can hear them crystal clear!"

"Now that my Tinnitus is gone, I can finally hear the difference between a tube amp and a modeller!"

"Now that I can sleep through the night, my senses are starting to come back to me and I realized that extreme death metal is actually one of the worst genres of music to come along since boy bands!"

"It made me lose my script for medical marijuana." :(
 
I can only recall one band I played in that had a sense of internal balance. Each & every one other than had a sound that was based on people trying to be heard because someoone else was playing louder - solution turn it up & the obvious domino efect until the end of the rehearsal. At gigs it was different because the PA was better & we had to present as a unit but at rehearsal it was so bad that my ears would ring for a day afterward.
I had a 100 watt marshall bass amp but still had to crank up the treble to cut through the two guitarists & drummer - all in a small rehearsal room.
& that was common across bands (maybe, as I was the common element, it was my fault???).
 
Slightly off topic but...

You know how the elderly are always wondering why there are no crickets anymore. :D
My boss did some skeet shooting with a shotgun "back in the day", he can't hear his cellphone ringing, or if something is leaking gas.. We were discussing bird-singing among co-workers when he stopped by thinking out loud "Damn, all I've heard is crows for past five years.."
That's pretty bleak I'd say. :D
 
Slightly off topic but...

You know how the elderly are always wondering why there are no crickets anymore. :D
My boss did some skeet shooting with a shotgun "back in the day", he can't hear his cellphone ringing, or if something is leaking gas.. We were discussing bird-singing among co-workers when he stopped by thinking out loud "Damn, all I've heard is crows for past five years.."
That's pretty bleak I'd say. :D

In a Seinfeld episode Uncle Leo kept saying "Will somebody answer that damn phone!"
VP
 
Back
Top