Dear Everyone, Looks like I won't be able to make it, as I simply don't have the thousand bucks. ( Sigh! ) Too bad, too, as I really wanted to meet 'y'all, play a lot of Fats Waller on Overs #6 ( with persimmon, of course! ) and give a REALLY scary campfire talk about the Evil Chickering Browne Action, and how to deal with it, should it ever cross your path. Oh well. To the 4 or 5 folks who chipped in $20 to help get me there, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and will, this coming week, send the Ecsaine samples I promised. ( Please email me again, so I don't forget any of you ). And I'll refund the difference. To the fellow who graciously chipped in $25, the 1890's Simplex push-up piano player is yours, if you want it, and I'll notify my brother in Rochester that you'll be contacting him to possibly pick it up. Sorry, again. I know it would have been a wonderful, informative time for me. But I live in an extremely economically depressed area, where pianos are just not a priority for many people, and, regardless of how I apply myself, my "bottom line" reflects this. Thanks again! Thumpster --- "pmc033 at earthlink.net" <pmc033 at earthlink.net> wrote: > HI, Geoff: > You may want to bite the bullet and have a REAL > evaluation done by a "professional". You need to > keep track of your progress, so regular visits are > recommended over time. > I have a hearing loss which begins at around > 4000 hz, so any further degradation for me is going > to be devastating. I've known about this since I > was in 8th grade (I'm 55 now), and I've had regular > checkups over the years. It hasn't changed much, if > at all. Luckily, I can still tune (Thanks, Dr. > Sanderson!). Anyway, I also have a problem hearing > in a crowd, and had a very similar experience > diagnosing a splinter between two keys. I just > couldn't hear it, but eventually the lady pointed it > out. > At least, get SOME kind of protection, so it > doesn't get worse. In my case, no hearing aid is > going to help much. I don't know if they would help > you, but you could check into it. > I'm also interested to "hear" about those Zem > plugs. I like mine, though. I use Hearos Musician > Plugs from Musician'sfriend.com. > > FWIW, > Paul McCloud > San Diego > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Geoff Sykes > To: Pianotech at Ptg. Org > Sent: 06/10/2006 2:40:41 PM > Subject: Follow-up on hearing protection > > > Well, my original question about the Zem ear plugs > never even got addressed, but the thread turned into > something interesting anyway. Now let's take it a > step further. > > I had an experience yesterday that suddenly slammed > this subject home for me. While prepping a new piano > at a store the manager claimed to be hearing a > squeak in two adjacent keys. I could hear a slight > rubbing, but no squeak. Everyone else in the store, > (much younger than me btw), could hear it. Just by > chance a fellow tech walked in. This person is a > little younger than me but what makes a real > difference is that this person is female, and it has > been proven that women have much better hearing then > men, and keep it longer. She could also hear it > fine. She also found the problem and fixed it. > Turned out to be a small piece of wood shaving > between two of the keys. She blew it out and the > squeak was gone. > > So, today I decided to check out just how my ears > were behaving. Just what COULD I still hear? Surely > there must be an online resource that could provide > some clue prior to actually paying to see a doctor. > Well my friends, there is! A company called Digital > Recordings offers a free "professional" hearing test > online. It offers 24 test frequencies from 20 Hz to > 20KHz with SPL ranging from 0 - 80 db in 1 db steps. > It requires the Java plug in, some VERY good > headphones and a VERY quiet room. I could not get it > to run in IE but on Firefox it ran perfectly. Check > it out. > > http://www.digital-recordings.com/hearing-test/www-ht-pro/ht_help_p.html > > Needless to say I was extremely disappointed in my > results. But, as an excuse, I have old crappy > headphones, live next to a busy street and there is > street construction going outside. I plan to find > some decent headphones and try it again in a quiet > place, but I don't expect significantly different > results. (- sigh -) Fortunately the top note on a > piano, (C8), is only around 4186 Hz. Well below > where my HF degradation started to kick in. (Whew!) > Still... > > Enjoy. I expect reports. > > -- Geoff Sykes > -- Assoc. Los Angeles __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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