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
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