Preventing hearing loss

[Elwood Doss]

I purchased the Musicians Ear plugs--2 sets about 6 years ago and began
using them in my tuning when I came to UTM.  I have 25db, 15db and 9db
inserts and have been pleased with these-well worth the investment.  My
dad who was an exceptional amateur musician worked in a railroad repair
facility in the 30's and 40's and by the early 60's he could not hear
well enough to match pitches.  By the time he was in his sixties we had
to yell at him for him to understand us.  His problem was nerve deafness
brought on by the loud sounds of presses where he worked (they repaired
steam locomotives).  Over the years I have worked hard to protect my
hearing wearing headphones/ear plugs when I'm on my riding mower, diesel
tractor and especially weed-eater, log splitter and chain saw.  So far,
and I'm 58, I've had no perceptible hearing loss (I do have some
selective hearing loss when my wife is talking to me, however...at least
that's what she tells me).  I realize that the next twenty years could
make a great difference in this, but I thank my God every day that He
has helped me to preserve my hearing.  I use ear plugs when I tune in
the practice rooms here since they are small brick and concrete block
rooms.  I also use them at other times depending on the venue.

Kudos to you for your concern for your hearing.  Since I'm an aural
tuner, I highly value my hearing (as do virtually all piano
technicians).

One other thing, I found that drinking lots of caffeinated coffee
affects me on one way...my hearing becomes extremely sensitive to
certain frequencies.  I've laid off the caffeine.

Joy!
Elwood

Rev. Elwood Doss, Jr., M.M.E., RPT
Piano Technician/Technical Director
Department of Music
145 Fine Arts Building
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN  38238
Office: 731/8811852
Fax: 731/881-7415

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Purney [mailto:engineering at raktron.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 8:47 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Preventing hearing loss

I'm curious what people do, if anything, to protect hearing while tuning

pianos. I'm sure your ears probably get used to the sound over time, but

the sound levels from my first tuning practice made me uncomfortable, 
gave me a slight headache, and I noticed that certain notes were almost 
painful to my ears.

I immediately thought about using closed-back headphones with some sort 
of microphone setup. This would block most direct sound, while providing

an accurate signal with adjustable volume. Depending on the mic pattern,

it might even help to reduce surrounding noises. With some EQ, it might 
even be possible to enhance the partials while attenuating the 
fundamental when listening for beats. The problem is that it's no fun to

wear large headphones all day.

I did some searching and found out about these special "Musician's" ear 
plugs that attenuate all frequencies evenly.  This seems to be an ideal 
solution, although expensive. They aren't cheap, and require custom 
fitting by an audiologist:
http://www.hearnet.com/images_site/erme_brochure.pdf