Drum Query

[ncb]

I was wondering if anyone knows anything else besides Ear Plugs to protect your ears while playing the drums. I wear ear plugs when I drum to records and when I jam on guitar with people because I’m very cautious about my hearing. Sometimes when I play guitar with people its just extremely loud with all the instruments and I worry about my hearing.

When I drum to records it’s always very loud because the record volume has to be up to hear it over the drums… I use hotrod practice sticks to keep the drum volume down a lot and that helps a lot but it kinda takes away from the sound and still I feel like my ears feel strange afterwards.

They’re not ringing when I get done and when I go to shows I wear my ear plugs as well and when I’m done they’re not ringing but you still have that "Whoa that shit was loud feeling".

What other things are there out there or am I maybe not using a good enough set of ear plugs?

They’re a pair from ETWMOTIC research I believe and my dad I think spent $29 to 30 something dollars on them when he bought them and sent me them for one christmas a long time ago.

I’ve seen people wearing headphone things before kinda like the things you have at a gun range, would those be better?

Any suggestions would be really appreciated, I’m just really worried about my ears almost obsessively.

[AGAP]

ex Dinosaur Jr/J Mascis drummer George Berz wore earplugs when playing, he said he spent about 100 bucks to get a pair molded specifically for his ears.

[ncb]

hmm I have a pair of ER22’s which are supposedly good. I have just been reading up on things since posting that and I’ve found that a lot of drummers are using isolation headphones and they’re not expensive so I think I’m going to purchase a pair.

[Robert]

When I was in the army we used both earplugs and those big headphone thingies when using mortars etc. I’m pretty sure you’ll be safe as milk if you use both. But be sure to buy the kind that only filters out the "bad" sounds, but let you hear everything else.

[ncb]

thanks man.

[Aatos]

My dad has told me several times how his ears make that "peep sound" caused by his younger "rock n roll years" when he played drums…

I usually use somekind of "alpine earplugs", they are supposed to balance the different sound frequencys’ but i don’t hear any big difference beetween these earplugs and my old ones, that were normal working earplugs. Often when im lazy and want to play drums i put big woodworker ear protection things… I don’t know what they are called, but they are meant for chainsawing big trees etc. They are not good for playing and they look stupid but they are easy to wear…

[ncb]

I think I’m going to go with those Vic Firth noise isolater headphones. They’re available from Muscian’s Friend for about $20.00. Thanks for all the replies though.

[Author]

Posts