I have a problem. I have wanted to play a guitar through the years, I've picked it up from time to time. I don't have any musical ability but do enjoy playing around. I do this like 3 months of the year and then set it down for a while as interests come and go.
2023 I bought a bass guitar. It wasn't long before I noticed my ears were sore the day after I played and I became concerned.
2024 when I picked it up again, ear soreness came back and I started playing with ear plugs. Earos at first and then You Tune. Now, I almost always played at a low volume, and still I felt I had to wear ear plugs.
So I thought this was a little silly and I bought an older Guild acoustic bass with hopes I could play this without ear plugs, which I tried. This ended up being worse actually as the sound hole proximity to my right ear created quite a bit of soreness. I started wearing ear plugs with the acoustic guitar and well, the ear plugs are not working and I don't think I should play even acoustic guitar any longer.
Pretty sure I have some kind of inner ear damage and now my ears are super sensitive, to the point that everyday and normal banging or hitting noises in the kitchen or garage whatever I will feel some kind of pain in my ear.
I should schedule an appointment with an ear doctor. Right now I am trying to see maybe how common this is or what kind of experiences any of you have had and how it has developed over time. I have had a low level of tinnitus for years, lots of loud concerts. Playing this bass guitar, the lower frequency or closeness to the amp perhaps, whatever, this is a whole new level of discomfort. I am nervous for the next concert I will be attending.
nebish You have apparently a similar condition as Jack Pearson who as you probably know was the slide and other lead guitarist for the ABB from 1997;to 1999.
Jack quit due to his tinnitus and that Dickey refused to turn down his amps.
You definitely should get them checked. I don't get pain from sounds, but I have had hearing aids for more than 10 years - mostly due to a lot of loud concerts. My trouble is with the high frequency sounds. I have fairly severe tinnitus - and they can't really do anything about it. My hearing aids play white noise to help, but it is pretty much the same volume as the tinnitus.
My wife and I started putting the closed captioning on our tv's. I notice at times they will say stuff like 'birds chirping' - and I don't hear a thing. Definitely get a hearing test, and tell them about the pain.
My right ear has hurt all day, like sore, not like bending over hurt, all because yesterday I played twinkle twinkle little star on the guitar for my 2 year old grandson and then I was subjected to some loud banging noises with children's toys hours later. Very sensitive
Pretty concerning, I will pursue a hearing test.
Ear plugs people use? I thought i liked the Earos and YouTune ear plugs, but they didn't seem to help this situation I tried to use them in.
Going a full day without playing the guitar or any loud noises helped, today I do not have any ear soreness. Will definitely see an ear doctor before my first live show of the year which as of now is not until March. Just kind of bummed because this is the time of year I would want to mess around with playing instruments.
Stay well nebish & have that stuff checked✌️
+1 As with many of us Rock n' Rollers, we're toast without our hearing aids!
Keep us posted Nebish. Always enjoy what you have to say. Cheers!
My appointment is in 2 weeks. I called an audiologist and they declined to see me and said I need to see an ENT instead. So I will see what they say.
I wore a somewhat less restrictive earplug (earos) in my right ear during a acoustic and electric guitar duo I saw a couple weeks ago. I was glad I did but still woke up with an earache in that ear. I wore nothing in my left ear and haven't had any unusual feeling in that one. Bigger test tonight I am seeing Brant Bjork locally and I expect it to be loud. I will wear the more restrictive youtune earplug atleast in my right ear and hope that come tomorrow morning I do not have regrets of going to that show.
@nebish I saw Led Zeppelin in a coliseum in 1974 and it was SO LOUD MY EARS RANG FOR FOUR DAYS!!!!!
Jimi Hendrix in 1968 at a Coliseum and my ears rang for 3 days.
I took ear plugs with me after Led Zeppelin just in case and would use them occasionally when it was a bit loud.
Gregg Allman wore ear plugs with the Allman Brothers Band. I noticed him adjective them occasionally. I think one may have simply come out and he was actually putting it back in.
i won tix for the bros at the beacon in 1996. front row. i saw my buddy after the show and he asked me how it was. all i could hear was a loud ringing. thought i had done permanent damage. by the next morning they were back to normal luckily. saw the mule back in mid 90's at a small club/bar. had my head close to the speaker stack most of the night but no ringing afterwards.
I'll find out tomorrow morning exactly how things went, but the ear plugs seemed to work.
My problem has been and continues to be I have extreme sensitivity in my right ear. To the point that using the sweeper on our carpet makes it hurt. I play with plastic toy tools with my grandson, the hammer, and after tapping playfully on something I feel some irritation in the ear. It sometimes feels like I have water in it. After the last show I went to, the electric and acoustic guitar duo that I wore the less aggressive ear plug, I had some occasional ear pain the following day - like an ear infection felt like when I was a kid. This is why the audiologist said she didn't want to see me and thought I needed to see a medical doctor, because pain is not normal she said.
I work on vehicles a lot. Hammering and using an air or electric impact wrench was causing right ear discomfort. I had to use ear plugs in the shop which was never a thing before.
So that is what I am trying to address. If I do some work tomorrow and the noise from it causes some pain in my ear then I'll know the ear plugs did not work. If not, then they did. Eddie Spaghetti and Metal Marty are doing an acoustic show Friday, don't think that shouldn't be a problem, but I'll still wear ear plugs in the right ear anyway. After all, when I was playing acoustic guitar myself unamplified it was causing discomfort.
After listening to loud music daily and attending many concert I came down with tinnitus about 8 years ago. I do not experiences ear pain, but my ears are very sensitive to loud sound. Now I wear custom make hearing protection with a 20 db filter. I can see some bands indoor if the venue is large enough, but mostley regulated to outdoor concerts.Please be careful. I wouldn't wish tinnitus I my worst enemy.
I'll find out tomorrow morning exactly how things went, but the ear plugs seemed to work.
My problem has been and continues to be I have extreme sensitivity in my right ear. To the point that using the sweeper on our carpet makes it hurt. I play with plastic toy tools with my grandson, the hammer, and after tapping playfully on something I feel some irritation in the ear. It sometimes feels like I have water in it. After the last show I went to, the electric and acoustic guitar duo that I wore the less aggressive ear plug, I had some occasional ear pain the following day - like an ear infection felt like when I was a kid. This is why the audiologist said she didn't want to see me and thought I needed to see a medical doctor, because pain is not normal she said.
I work on vehicles a lot. Hammering and using an air or electric impact wrench was causing right ear discomfort. I had to use ear plugs in the shop which was never a thing before.
So that is what I am trying to address. If I do some work tomorrow and the noise from it causes some pain in my ear then I'll know the ear plugs did not work. If not, then they did. Eddie Spaghetti and Metal Marty are doing an acoustic show Friday, don't think that shouldn't be a problem, but I'll still wear ear plugs in the right ear anyway. After all, when I was playing acoustic guitar myself unamplified it was causing discomfort.
How did you make out?
"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
After listening to loud music daily and attending many concert I came down with tinnitus about 8 years ago. I do not experiences ear pain, but my ears are very sensitive to loud sound. Now I wear custom make hearing protection with a 20 db filter. I can see some bands indoor if the venue is large enough, but mostley regulated to outdoor concerts.Please be careful. I wouldn't wish tinnitus I my worst enemy.
I need to find out the db rating of the ear plugs I have. What is the price range of custom ear plugs?
I'll find out tomorrow morning exactly how things went, but the ear plugs seemed to work.
My problem has been and continues to be I have extreme sensitivity in my right ear. To the point that using the sweeper on our carpet makes it hurt. I play with plastic toy tools with my grandson, the hammer, and after tapping playfully on something I feel some irritation in the ear. It sometimes feels like I have water in it. After the last show I went to, the electric and acoustic guitar duo that I wore the less aggressive ear plug, I had some occasional ear pain the following day - like an ear infection felt like when I was a kid. This is why the audiologist said she didn't want to see me and thought I needed to see a medical doctor, because pain is not normal she said.
I work on vehicles a lot. Hammering and using an air or electric impact wrench was causing right ear discomfort. I had to use ear plugs in the shop which was never a thing before.
So that is what I am trying to address. If I do some work tomorrow and the noise from it causes some pain in my ear then I'll know the ear plugs did not work. If not, then they did. Eddie Spaghetti and Metal Marty are doing an acoustic show Friday, don't think that shouldn't be a problem, but I'll still wear ear plugs in the right ear anyway. After all, when I was playing acoustic guitar myself unamplified it was causing discomfort.
How did you make out?
Thanks for asking. Not as good as I hoped but not as bad as I feared. No pain. Soreness and sensitivity that I would not have had if it weren't for the show. But I was actually a little nervous before I went and when I was first there, I was thinking am I going to do more damage being here, am I standing too close to this speaker or maybe I should move somewhere else. I felt the ear plug was firmly inserted though and just went with it. It has a removable filter too, but I don't know the rating. Was my first loud show since the whole thing got bad. I would say it worked out ok. Without ear plugs I can only imagine the bad shape I'd be in. Now 3 acoustic shows plus whatever in random nashville bars next week, but I'll put my ear plugs in as soon as I step inside. Curious to see what the doctor says on the 24th and I will report back.
It's been about 6 years since I purchased the air protection and then they were 200 with 3 different filter
I saw the ENT. He did a visual with a puff of air test in the ear and said the ear drums are good, normal, no scaring or anything bad. The discomfort I am having is likely a nerve issue he tends to think. Will need a hearing test at the audiologist which is where I first called. He said when you described pain that probably made them think you had a more concerning issue. So I don't know much yet, other than no ear drum issue.
I've been listening to music today at a normal volume in the car and the garage and right ear is a little sore, not like bad, but I can tell it shouldn't feel like that. I wore ear plugs in atleast the right ear almost the entire time I was in Nashville bars and that worked, no real ill effects from that trip, obviously good.
Had a hearing test today. All is good. Left hear is a little better than the right, but all the tests on the right came back acceptable/good. So as far as they can tell nothing is detected to cause the sensitivity and occasional soreness/pain depending on conditions which cause it. We talked about a lot of different things and I learned a lot. Kind of liked the hearing test. I thought that frequency alone could cause hearing damage, she said not without being coupled by volume. I wondered if maybe the low frequency of an electric bass coupled with my settings on the amp might've led to this condition. There were some times I was playing loud, but not long and not often.
So it remains a mystery as far as these two professionals. Maybe some different doctors might figure something out? She said the ENT may want an MRI to look at Eustachian tube. But the hairs in the cochlea would all seem to be normal based on the hearing test. If it is nerve, the ENT said a hearing test would indicate that, the audiologist said it would not. Doctors not agreeing is always good.
I picked a few notes on the acoustic bass last night had felt right ear tickling within one minute. Had I played long or amplified I'm sure my ear would've been sore this morning. Don't know. She said they could do ear molds for the filters that go up to 26db if I wanted. Those run $250 from a company in Minnesota they use. I could try that in the right ear if I wanted to proceed with trying to actually play the bass guitar. Or I can just keep using the ear plugs I have to experience live music. Would like to know what is going on, or what happened to cause this.
If it was me I would stay away from anything loud. No bass or guitar playing. No live music. No noisy bars. Nothing.
If you have damaged your ear you don’t want to make it worse. Also, just because there are physical evidence it hurts with loud noise. You don’t want anything that will permanently affect your ear. Once it’s gone it is gone.
I went back to that ENT April 30th as a follow-up after my hearing test. I have never experienced such an unhelpful doctor. He was nice about it and all, "I am sorry, I really don't know what to tell you" and he's an older guy, but got exactly nowhere. Charged $196 each for two office visits, what a waste of money. He was a referral from my family doctor. My insurance got it down to $108 each out-of-pocket.
Since then I have made it through two AC/DC concerts, both with earplugs. I still had increased ringing afterwards but it returned to normal ringing by the next morning. So I just wear proper earplugs now all the time at concerts, which is probably a good idea for everyone who have issues or not. But I used the impact wrench in the garage and the hammering/ratcheting sound from that caused some discomfort. So the problem is still present.
I am not willing to try another ear doctor. The audiologist was helpful, but they say no damage is detected and my hearing is actually very very good by the tests.
