Hearing protection -- Don't Leave Home Without Some. I am one of the many with Westone "Musicians' Plugs" and have found that I can hear greater detail of overall tone of a string than I can without hearing protection. Hearing protection is for the ears what sunglasses are for the eyes on a bright day. Next question. Do you use your hearing protection while travelling or in other common, noisy environments? In other words, do you keep your earplugs handy to use within a moment's notice should the need arise, or do you use them only for tuning and/or shopwork? ZR! RPT Ann Arbor MI diskladame@provide.net ---------- > From: Leslie W Bartlett <lesbart@juno.com> > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: hearing protection > Date: Monday, August 04, 1997 11:42 PM > > Dear List > > Some months ago there was a thread going on "hearing protection". I > mentioned I owned a set of Rock Stars II plugs, very expensive, with > which I'd not had enough experience to report about their effectiveness. > > Recently the audiologist who ordered my plugs did a program for the > Guild, and she did significant research before her presentation, since we > are a unique challenge to the field. Evidently the RS II plugs with none > of the filters offers about a 10db attenuation across the spectrum. The > plugs come with six sets of little plastic filters, which, to my > experience, are virtually useless. But the open tube, offering minimal > dampening has been a delight to use. > > Yesterday I tuned in a school room where the music teacher had a radio > playing softly. I put the plugs in with the open tube, which is elbow > shaped, and can be rotated, pointing to the piano, and there was no bleed > over from the radio. I did have a bit of a challenge when, in another > classroom, two teachers were singing childrens' songs while I tuned! > (It's incredible how either ignorant or inconsiderant folks can be about > how their noise affects others.....) On large grands, it might be that a > filter, which adds further attenuation at specified hertz levels, would > be worth using. I don't tune a lot of those, so can't offer an opinion > in that regard. > > I seldom tune without the plugs anymore. I am sold on their value. After > a full day of tuning my arm was tired, but my ears were not. Expensive, > they are, but the cost could be lowered quite a bit if the plugs came > only with the open tube in them, since the filters seem to drive the cost > up quite a bit. > > > Leslie Bartlett > > lesbart@juno.com
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