Official Luthiers Forum!

A few years ago I asked some questions about what folks do to see better & found it helpfull.
Now I want to know if anyone uses any form of hearing aid. I just got my first hearing aid to the tune of $2500. It does seem to help in my higher range in conversation, one on one. However it is not a magical cure. When I play guitar and/or sing all of a sudden I am hearing all kinds of higher range & more trebely sound. Without it now, it sounds like there are pillows over my ears. I can't help but think this limits my ability to judge the sound of any guitar? Although I guess it's like golf, everyone is playing under the same conditions. Is anyone else dealing with this?
Also, over christmas I watched the 25th R&R hall of fame thingy, S&G were my favorite. I noticed many perforemers wearing an earpiece; I'm guessing it was a monitor of some kind. Anyone know about those?
Mike McNerney

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Mike McNerney

Those are in ear monitors. They've been around for about 15 or more years now but have gotten quite popular due to the price becoming more reasonable, and the fact that you can control the level of sound that you are subjected to with a lot more precision. Most musicians are realizing that they can protect their hearing from the level of sound on stage by using these plus it allows the performer to hear just what they want to hear in their monitor mix. They take a bit of getting used to but most find them to work very well. I found that when I was playing actively I still liked to have a floor monitor along with an ear monitor. Unfortunately, I spent too many years in these high decibel situations ie. on stage playing, working FOH and monitor sound and in the recording studios without this kind of protection, and am paying the price of hearing loss now.

My hearing problems are mostly dealing with tinitis and some high end deficiency. I'm not convinced that a hearing aid would help with the tinitis.

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Tinitis is, I believe, like 'phantom limb': it's a signal supplied by your brain when it doesn't get a signal it's expecting. Hearing aids don't make it go away, but they do provide a signal that masks it. So they help.

There is no substitute for 'real' hearing. Unlike glasses or contacts, which can correct a deficiency in eyesight, once you lose hearing acuity, you've lost it, and won't get it back. Hearing aids offer a sort of 'compression', boosting the low level signals up to where you can hear them, and, hopefully, limiting the high level ones so they won't do damage. But if your hearing is gone above 13,000 Hz, it's gone. It's not the aid that's limiting your ability to judge the sound of your guitars; if anything, it's helping.

Bottom line: if you need a hearing aid, get it. It's better than subjecting all of your friends and loved ones to the din of loud TVs and forcing them to shout. If you don't need a hearing aid preserve what you've got.

My brother is fairly new to hearing-aids and he says that it takes a year or so to retrain your brain to correct for the hearing-aid.

Bob

I just got one. I've been deaf in one ear all my life and have a high frequency loss in the good ear. The new one has the same issues described. The pick noise on the guitar is really annoying and the highs just seem to have way too much of an edge. I see the tech Monday and she can EQ it on a computer and we'll see what happens. I'm not ready to shell out $2800 for it the way it is now. I can trial it for another month or so. I'll report back.
TJK

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I`ve had hearing aids in both ears for several years now.It takes some time to get the proper adjustments made and also to get used to musical sounds.Eventually things seem to come around.My biggest fear is total hearing loss.I can`t imagine how terrible this is for some people,especially for music lovers like myself.The aids are supposed to help prevent this,but my hearing seems to keep getting worse.I don`t mean to be negative.For sure if you need them get them.I was just about shut out from the world without them. Also there are some aids that may be better for music than others,at least that`s what my audiologist told me.It may pay to investigate this. James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I was kind of wondering if hearing aids can contribute to progressive loss. You are cranking up the bad frequencies to a level you can hear better but in reality they are louder than the ear was originally designed to deal with. is it a catch 22 situation? Did you finally get yours EQ'd to your satisfaction James?
TJK

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

In theory the better hearing aids have limiters, that keep them from getting too loud. In practice, I had to give up choral singing because it seemed to be making my hearing loss worse. If I had the old analog aids up high enough to hear the conductor's instructions during rehearsals, I'd get socked when the sopranos and tenors kicked in.

The digital aids are better in this respect, but have their own issues. One annoying thing I'm really noticing of late is that, when I start to play a guitar, my digital hearing aid will decide that there's too much high frequency for my own good, and turn it down. I get to hear about two measures as it should sound, and then it all goes flat.

Yes Terrence.Guitars actually sound good to me.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee