ok so I'm an idiot

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thurgood
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Thurgood

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Yep thats right folks. Here's how it all began. About two weeks ago I was playing through my Marshall 100 watter at volume. Like nearly dimed, pushing two mesa ev extension cabs. Being prudent I wore earplugs and shooting muffs (hehe, shooting muffs). It was fun and needless to say VERY LOUD. I was checking the amp out after a rebias, sounded great, better than before. I was using the ordinarily crap ultra-gain channel that I recently swithed out the 12ax7a for a 12dw7 (unbalanced triode) note: try this you may find that channel much more usable, but that is another story. So two weeks pass, I plug into channel one and jam away at very moderate volume, not quite bedroom but close. I reach down to switch to ultra-gain to hear if my previous experience with that channel still sounded as I remembered. What I did not notice was the volume setting on the soon to be selected channel. What I received in short order as I leaned forward, right ear close to the cab, was a blast of G major the likes of which has to be experienced to be believed (don't reccomend this, by the way). I very nearly pee'd myself from the sudden sonic assault. Now today I have the beginnings of what I hope is not tinnitus. N.B. Turn on the lights, observe the settings before you leap. Well this could mean that I will never earn a living with my ears again. :mad:
 
Dude, you can absolutely work thru tinnitus. It's not a career killer. I have a very chronic case of it and it sucks but honestly when I sit down to mix I put it out of my mind and just get on with things. I do sometimes think that my mixes might be better had my hearing been 100% but never the less I get pretty good results and have many many repeat clients. If you're in the business there's bound to be times where your hearing is going to be assaulted in very unpleasant ways. The worst for me is when I'm mic'ing a kit and the drummer decides to start going crazy on the cymbals. Don't sweat it man, you'll get passed it in time.
 
LOL- shooting muffs!!!

Sorry to hear you blew out your hearing like that. You might be able to recover though, so do a search for foods rich in vitamins that'll help your body heal. Seriously it may help.
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Hopefully it will pass in a few days. I can relate to the cymbal thing, been there before.
 
That's OK... most guitarists that have been playing a long time can't hear anyway... that's why we stand there grinning, not talking, most of the time! ;)
 
I had one of those once when I was routing a cable through a wall hook over my mixing board. There was a hot mic in front of a couple of live monitors that were pointed right at me, and I was standing on a stool. I pulled on the cable, and it dropped onto my board between two trim pots, one of them the one on the channel the hot mic was on. I tugged on the cable and it spun the trim pot all the way up; the monitors went into roaring, screaming, earsplitting feedback, and I fell off the stool and wrenched my back.

My ears rang for two days, my back hurt for a month, and I had to replace the blown tweeters in both monitors.
 
Dude....... yr OK! Im not an ear doctor(but I play one on tv!), but my understanding is that tinnitus is from PROLONGED exposure. So if you didnt blow your eardrum up in one shot, you dont have much to worry about.
 
ggunn said:
I had one of those once when I was routing a cable through a wall hook over my mixing board. There was a hot mic in front of a couple of live monitors that were pointed right at me, and I was standing on a stool. I pulled on the cable, and it dropped onto my board between two trim pots, one of them the one on the channel the hot mic was on. I tugged on the cable and it spun the trim pot all the way up; the monitors went into roaring, screaming, earsplitting feedback, and I fell off the stool and wrenched my back.

My ears rang for two days, my back hurt for a month, and I had to replace the blown tweeters in both monitors.
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See thurgood, dumb shit happens to everyone and like I said, if you're in this business there are going to be times when your ears are going to take a good beating. You don't need perfect ears to do great work. Just to let you know I've had ringing in my ears non stop since I was 14 years old. I can't sleep in silence without going nuts but other than that I live with it just fine.
 
Flamin Lip said:
Dude....... yr OK! Im not an ear doctor(but I play one on tv!), but my understanding is that tinnitus is from PROLONGED exposure. So if you didnt blow your eardrum up in one shot, you dont have much to worry about.
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Not true. My dad dropped a heavy plank of wood on his shed floor that made a loud-assed cracking noise right next to his ear. That was 2 years ago. he still has tinnitus in that ear. However a loud crack I would imagine can do a lot more damage to your eardrum than the sound of a guitar.

I have been to many a gig where my ears are still rinigng the next morning and it has always passed.
 
legionserial said:
I have been to many a gig where my ears are still rinigng the next morning and it has always passed.
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i was about to say! every time i plan on buying some decent ear plugs (like right now!) and it always goes out of my mind until the Next time. i WILL do it this time though.

i hope your ears get better (and by that, i mean Everyones ears :rolleyes::p)

Andrew.
 
Flamin Lip said:
Dude....... yr OK! Im not an ear doctor(but I play one on tv!), but my understanding is that tinnitus is from PROLONGED exposure. So if you didnt blow your eardrum up in one shot, you dont have much to worry about.
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Well, it's cumulative. One very, very loud hit can cause the same damage as years of moderate abuse. That said, the best thing you can do if you hurt yourself like that is to wear high isolation earplugs all the time for a week to let your ears heal. If your ears are subjected to further injury while recovering, the damage can be exacerbated.
 
dgatwood said:
Well, it's cumulative. One very, very loud hit can cause the same damage as years of moderate abuse. That said, the best thing you can do if you hurt yourself like that is to wear high isolation earplugs all the time for a week to let your ears heal. If your ears are subjected to further injury while recovering, the damage can be exacerbated.
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Pete Townshend says that the incident on the Smothers Brothers Show when they blew up the drum kit was a major contributor to his tinnitus. Of course, all those years standing in front of all those Hiwatts and Marshalls didn't do his ears any good, either...
 
When I'm sad & loenly & blue I always have my tinitus to keep me company.
Seriously though my left ear is really loud and my right less so - I assume that means it wasn't just prolonged headphone use but also some sort of trauma (probably the several times my head hit the road inside a helmet when my m/cycle seemed to be possessed by evil spirits).
I've done the ear blast thing a few times over the years - having a 100 watt superbass amp and being a klutz I am prone to such things - and SEEM to have recovered by protecting the poor blighter from proximitous & subsequent injury & staying well away from headphones/earbuds for a few weeks.
Good luck & swift recovery!!!
 
Still ringing. As someone pointed out, years of abuse ain't helpin. Ya'll are the best. :)
 
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