Hearing Protectors

[Z! Reinhardt]

Just for the fun of it ... have you tried using a NoiseBuster (available
from Brookstone and like stores)?  It's a noise cancellation device
designed specifically to handle the low end of the acoustic spectrum.  I
think it was originally manufactured for travellers bothered by engine
noise.  It looks like nothing more than a pair of headphones connected to a
little box.  By themselves, they greatly reduce excess noise in the bass. 
Use them in conjunction with foam earplugs to handle the rest of the piano.

Good luck!

Z! Reinhardt RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net

----------
From: Michael Jorgensen <Michael.Jorgensen@cmich.edu>
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Hearing Protectors
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 1998 5:42 AM

Frank Cahill wrote:
> 
> What are you protecting against?  If 30 db is not enough, maybe you
> should not be there.  
> muffs.

Thanks to all who responded to my post.  I am disappointed to find no
protectors attenuating much over 30db.  I don't sit on jet engines, but
tune C-5s and P22s in seventy 9'x 6' practice rooms with brick walls
tile floors and twelve foot angled ceilings.  I wear a 24db headset plus
29db foam together which doesn't equal 53db attenuation.   I also added
a piece of backrail cloth to the inside of the headset and bought an
RCT.  With this, the highest treble tones are mere taps but the bass
tones are loud as ever.  It is my understanding that treble hearing loss
is actually caused from loud bass tones.  My concern--Even though I am
well within OSHA limits is that pounding the same frequencies over and
over again is more wearing than a steady less shocking white noise? 
24db protectors seem to work fine for my riding mower but after three of
these practice pianos, I feel alittle deaf. I've tried the musicians
type from Westone lab, but this didn't seem to attenuate enough either.
Also tuning bass unisons with an ETD doesn't do very well, not that
anyone can hear in those rooms anyway. Ideas anyone?

-Mike Jorgensen RPT