best protection for ears ?

Kayly

Can anyone recommend what plugs or other are good for protecting hearing with electric guitars ? Are ordinary disposible earplugs any good or would it be neccessary to invest in something more expensive?

KeithTS

Depends what you're looking for, what your budget is and what you're playing.

Normal earplugs are fine for the most part.
However, as a guitarist I find these can really restrict my playing as the sound is muffled and you hear more low end, a lot of the subtleties are lost so harmonics and feedback and stuff is harder to control because you can't hear it properly, this can also lead to a lot of bands thinking they sound great when their playing is actually very sloppy.

If these things aren't an issue get the cheap things, if not you can get custom ones made up which will attenuate all frequencies meaning you hear everything the way you want only quieter, these can cost from a couple of hundred up depending on what you want.

Rigsby

KeithTS wrote: »

Depends what you're looking for, what your budget is and what you're playing.

Normal earplugs are fine for the most part.
However, as a guitarist I find these can really restrict my playing as the sound is muffled and you hear more low end, a lot of the subtleties are lost so harmonics and feedback and stuff is harder to control because you can't hear it properly, this can also lead to a lot of bands thinking they sound great when their playing is actually very sloppy.

If these things aren't an issue get the cheap things, if not you can get custom ones made up which will attenuate all frequencies meaning you hear everything the way you want only quieter, these can cost from a couple of hundred up depending on what you want.

+1 to all of this.


OP if you have the money get the best plugs that you can. The custom ones mentioned by KeithTS are the best.

The linked thread below gives some information as to where to get them.

Main point is to have protection of some sort, if you cant afford the custom made ones.


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056614589

cezet

Playing on the electric guitar and licking the lollipop in foil, are the same... for me
Use the volume pot for protecting your ears.

Rigsby

cezet wrote: »

Use the volume pot for protecting your ears.

That's OK for lone bedroom players. If you are playing a gig or are in a rehearsal room with two guitars, drums and bass, even if you could get everyone to agree to lower the volume, it would still be too loud to play without hearing protection.

groovie

I use plugs for both practise and playing live.
Like these ones on Thomann

They take all the frequencies down so you just seem to be a little further away from the souce of the sound. Saves on headaches and probably hearing loss.
We don't have a monitoring system so we need these in order to sing and not strain to hear ourselves.

Kayly

Thanks for all the suggestions- its for a teenager- amp the size of a fridge and its really loud so he really needs to be using something to protect his hearing. He had been using foam disposables but not too happy with them as apparently they muffle everything.
Also 2 other guitarists when they play together and a drummer- so its 4 times the noise then. :eek:

KeithTS

Most ear plugs will muffle things, its kind of their job.
If you splash out on molded plugs they are better, another option is ear protection such as headphones you'll see people wearing when using power tools, as they are over your ears you don't get the same attenuation of higher frequencies