Tinnitus--Head Count

[absurdplanet]

What is tinnitus?

Tinnitus is a ringing in the ear that will never go away, it can be perceived in one or both ears, or even inside the head. Tinnitus can just start at any given time and when it does you are stuck with it for life, it gets louder as you keep getting exposed to loud noises over time. With other 50 million people in the USA having the symptom it is more popular than people realise. Although it is common to hear ringing some people hear other things such as; hissing, roaring, clicking, whistling and buzzing.

http://www.play-bass.com/tinnitus

Who among us has this terrible condition?
I've had this horrible ringing in my ears for many years now.
It rarely goes away--maybe a few hours every month or so.

Please take precautions so you can enjoy silence--I hear constant ringing in my ears--it's no joke.
After doing almost any gig or even jamming in the studio--it's even worse!
After gigging it can be so loud that I can barely even hear the TV--I know I also have hearing loss.

So learn about it, educate yourselves, try and wear protective ear plugs--maybe play a 22 watt amp as opposed to the 50 watt amps (unless you must play that loud).

I learned my lesson far too late.
Years of gigging and watching performers at extremely loud volume has left me in terrible shape.
Real men do wear ear plugs

So, who among us has this serious aliment?

[CVTele Dan]

Air tools, tire machine, guns and airplanes did it to me. The constant ringing is a drag.

[PraiseCaster]

For years I never suffered it, other than a little temporary tennitis ( a few hours after a concert, or after going to the drag races).

But about 9 months ago, while I was setting for at the Marine Chapel at Camp Pendelton, I was standing right next to the elevated monitor, when there was a sudden high pitched blast that made folks in the back cover there ears and scream for mercy. I took a direct shot into my left ear, from less than 2 feet away from the speaker. That whole day, it was a high pitch squeal in my ear, and over the course of a few days, it lessened to where it is now: A high pitch squiggly kind squeal, down low in the background. Barely noticeable in the daily din of things, but late at night, I know its there.

[buddywayne]

Yep! Got it. Hate it. Too late now.

[Hiker]

+1

Right Ear started about age 47, and left about a year later. The loudness of the ringing has increased, and the right is somewhat worse. In my case, it was not loud music as much as a very loud, often high pitched-former work environment.

[fordfanjpn]

I've had it for several years. Probably from playing in loud bands and working for several years in recording studios. It gets worse sometimes, but never better.

Bill

[Martinussen]

I've had a ringing in my left ear and a ringing and a hiss in my right for 8 years. It only annoys me when I'm listening to quiet music or when I'm really tired. The docs tell me that my ears are OK, so it must be a psychological thing. I also suffer from dizziness and pressure problems, so something must be wrong up there...

[PraiseCaster]

Originally Posted by Martinussen

I also suffer from dizziness and pressure problems, so something must be wrong up there...

Whew! Thank God, I dont have anything, "up there".

[Derek S]

Fortunately, I do not have tinnitus. Although I attended my fair share of concert and clubs gigs, I haven't been exposed to much loud music in 15 plus years. I never did much gigging so that probably has helped.

My right ear fells "full" much of the time though. My Dr. says it's a clogged eustachean tube caused by an allergy-it sucks. I have to use a nasal spray almost every day.

[Slow Reflexes]

Thank you, Rich Robinson.

Actually, it's my own damn fault for not remembering my earplugs... but I would have thought that the venue would have some for sale

[JNE]

+1

I have a constant tinnitus in my both ears, been like that for like 10 years or so. Makes falling a sleep a bit hard sometimes...

Noww lizzen kidz; do alwayz wear your earplugz when expozed to mazzive noize!!

[ibobunot]

Loud music, drag pipes on my Sportster, power tools... yeah my ears ring like a bell...

[PeteMac]

Yep . . . and it's inside my head.

Usually, in the normal course of the day, it doesn't bother me too much. But when it's quiet, it's all I can hear.
I have learned to "tune it out" over the years.

But I wish I had taken precautions when I was younger !

[sonicland]

Mine sounds like it's inside my head more than in the ears. During the day it's barely noticeable but at night it is. I've had my hearing checked and there's no hearing loss so for that I'm grateful and of course I wear earplugs whenever necessary. I don't feel it's gotten any worse in the last few years. I'm about to turn 50 and can also lament what happens to ones eyesight around this age. I didn't need glasses until I was about 28 and even then it was a light prescription for the next 20 years. Now my eyesight has really gone to hell and I can't read any print from any distance without my bifocals.

[Alnico Sunburst]

Sometimes I get it so bad that it beats against real notes that I listen to. When I get like that, I can whistle a tune, and it sounds like an out of tune honky tonk piano in my head. But it comes and goes, and when it goes I'm grateful. White noise helps a lot. You can fall asleep to an FM radio tuned between stations - that's white noise.

I work in an airplane factory and get tested yearly. I'm losing my midrange.

[bandeapart]

Thanks so much for the heads up-

tomorrow morning I'm heading to GC as soon as they open to buy some "High Fidelity" Hearos before practice. I always leave with my ears ringing and that can't be good.

[Derek McNelly]

I developed tinnitus when I was very young, probably around 3. I used to have difficulty hearing over the buzzing. It's like a high pitched whine that's mostly in my left ear. It was so bad at one point that I actually took the speaker out of my truck's driver side door, however, it's gotten a lot better now that I'm out of school and marching band.

The band I'm with now tends to play lower volume gigs, so I'm doing a lot better with it, but having had it my whole life (as far as I remember), I can't imagine what I'd do without that buzzing.

[brokenjoe]

Stupidly, I've greatly abused my ears in the past. Standing in front of a dimed 100w Marshall night after night certainly took it's toll. Fortunately, I've never developed tinnitus.

My ears would ring a lot after a show, but that would usually have faded by the next day. When things got REAL loud, they would actually hum.

I've definately got some hearing loss. More in the left than in the right.

[Mike Armstrong]

I've had it for decades...need a fan going at night to produce "white" noise so I can sleep...

It hasn't made me stop playing the rock-und-roll, however!!!

Mike

[TG]

I've a little bit.

[tiktok]

When I was a teenager, I used to mow lawns and do landscaping work with one of those old four-battery Walkmen cranked. A few hours of that every day left me with tinnitus after a couple of years. I don't notice it unless I'm somewhere very quiet, and there aren't many places like that.

[Eric Karonen]

No tinnitus here, but I've used cigarette filters in my ears at times at loud concerts. They work! Don't laugh ....

[TomTele]

Got it

[bobthecanadian]

Let's see, that's 18 before me, and I also have it.

18 + 1 = 19

[boris bubbanov]

Count me.

My experience sounds like PeteMac's, perhaps a little less.

Always be thinking about other possible causes of this kind of noise, relating to hypertension, these sorts of things.

[TG]

Originally Posted by Eric Karonen

No tinnitus here, but I've used cigarette filters in my ears at times at loud concerts. They work! Don't laugh ....

I have some proper earplugs that I use sometimes, but they take out too much top end for guitar playing sometimes. But I also use replacement covers for in-ear headphones...the little foam covers...and they work surprisingly well too. I find you can put them in in such a way that you get a big volume reduction but you still hear everything clearly.

[ce24]

yep 10 years in bush Alaska,small airplanes for hours on end and sno machines....yep 24-7.....it's a drag but I can ignore it, I guess some can't and that must be horrible..

ce24

[woodman]

count me in ... my tinnitus started with grenade/artillery/airstrike blasts in SE Asia in the '60s, but 40 years of rock 'n' roll haven't exactly been a healing process!

[Canuckcaster]

I also suffer from this. The funny thing is that I recently started wearing earplugs at night because my wife snores. The earplugs block out the snoring, but it makes the ringing seem louder. I guess I should have worn the earplugs at concerts instead.

CC

[originalmatthew]

Add another one to the list. I went to lots of concerts as a kid and eventually became a member of IATSE in the days when earplugs weren't manditory and we weren't smart enough to put them in ourselves.

[1977CJ5]

Yes. Left ear. From guns.

[bassbuster33]

Add me to the list. I've had it for years.

[Sidney Vicious]

I have it - its there all the time - but I don't know where or how I got it - I guess a loud rock concert here and there in my teens or twenties loud summer construction job . . . . I guess that's all it took.

Unlike I think some of you I don't think by lifestyle or profession I have been exposed to a great deal of loud for a long time - but maybe that is a point to note - that it doesn't take much!

[jazztele]

i have it. i'm lucky, mine's pretty mild,and i really only notice it if i think about it.

without a doubt, i got it from playing in loud rock bands throughout high school and college. y'know, at one time i used two fender twins on stage? what was i thinking?

[TELEkinetic]

Too many shotgun blasts and Who concerts. Yes. Both ears.

[still_fiddlin]

Yep. Sometimes it's really annoying, others not so much. Years of playing in bar bands, plus a summer job working in a mill sawing wood, pre (or perhaps non-compliant) OSHA, with no hearing protection. Riding my motorcycle for 1000+ mile days probably doesn't help, either, though I've got ear plugs, or more likely, Shure earbuds, to keep most of the noise at bay. Probably time go get my hearing checked again and see how it's holding up since last time.

By all means, protect your hearing, whether you've got this or not. It's all additive, so save what you've got left by diminishing the dBs going in.

[bug music]

+1
Both ears, a bit more on the right than left, usually don't notice except when I'm trying to sleep (or now that we're talking about it).
But on the bright side I always have an F# to reference when I tune by ear.

- Jay

[Brad Pittiful]

add me to the party

[mad dog]

Yes, on the right side. Mostly not terrible, but can be quite upsetting. Probably started with a rocket dragster takeoff at a drag race (no idea it would be that loud.) Then certainly not helped by years of playing national steel looking down at my left hand. I wear earplugs always when playing or rehearsing, most often at any live shows too. That has certainly kept it from getting much worse, much more quickly.

[rhh7]

Left ear, I wear ear plugs and use a white noise machine to sleep.