The Steel Guitar Forum

I have had it for 20+ years too...

I noticed it when I was a kid, long before I ever played in a band. Big amps, drums, and ESPECIALLY cymbals at ear level just made it worse, but for me, it wasn't actually caused by bands/loud music, they just made worse.

The band I am playing with at the moment has a drummer using one of those Roland electric drum kits, with rubber "cymbal" triggers - sacrilege to the purists, but much kinder to the ears of those sitting right next to them!

I too have seen specialists and audiologists, with no successful solutions other than being told to "get used to it".
Last year I tried a herbal supplement that was being pretty heavily pushed in Australia...I tried it every day for a month - no good.

Sadly, just the other day, my 4 year old daughter asked her mum "what is that high sound in my head?"

I've had it for years. It comes and goes, like I hadn't heard it till I looked at this thread. I would like to try Lipo-Flavonoid as well but I take 30+ pills a day and my liver docs have so far refused to let me use it.

I'll ask again on my January trip to UCLA.

i have had the ringing in my ears sense vietnam where my ear drumbs were ruptered twice in 3 weeks. there is no cure i'am affraid, i've been to all the va doctors there is. i have to sleep with a ocean machine turned up to drown out the ringing. i was told by one va doctor, where a vet agreed to have his cords cut to see if the ringing would go away'
it didn't he will never hear again but said the ringing was still there.
i just deal with it the best i can
gary glisson
munford tn

Has anyone tried a medication called, TINNI-FIX?


ROGER

My tinnitus was caused, not by loud music, but by a side effect of chemotherapy treatment.

It's permanent, but, over the years, the brain slowly filters it out, it only becomes very noticeable if I eat too much salty food, or read threads like this

Try a nerve pill. Doyle

Me too Roger! Here's their site: http://tinni-fix.com/

I have it in the left ear.It started in the service in 1970 when they had us dum privates firing 8" inch howettzers direct fire.Thats equivlant to 20 nasville
1000,s cranked all the way up two inches from your ear.They diddn't mention ear plugs once and probably never even had any to give out.

above

It could be worse, there is a guy on the forum with ringing on his fourth string....and there is no cure for it as well...

Hey guys,,, I had tinnitus, especially bad in the left ear. I also had some balance problems and hearing loss. I had a dye contrast MRI done last August and guess what,, tumor. It's known as a vestibular schwanomma, or an acoustic neuroma. I'm currently recovering from surgery where they cut a silver dollar sized hole in my skull behind my ear, moved the brain out of the way and yanked the tumor off the facial and hearing nerve.
If you are having related symmptoms along with tinnitus get it checked out. I highly recommend Barrow's Neurological Institue in Phoenix.
(VA hospital in Loma Linda CA did an MRI over three years ago,,, and failed to find the tumor).
I had band practice last night and I feel pretty clumsy, but that should correct itself in four weeks or so.
E-mail me if I can help.

Lee Baucum wrote:Have any of you folks found any over-the-counter products that help?

Too many years of loud music and shotguns (not at the same venues!) have done a number on my ears.

when I think about what you said I realized that you are correct 100%...the most painful experiences to my hearing were playing with a "country" band down town, with a drummer behind me and lead guitarists amp in front of me..that was so bad that I actualy had a real headache after the gig and decided not to play with those jokers again..second time was after shooting some guns among them was AK47 and SKS without hearing protection, I tought I lost my hearing, it took me probably couple of months to get my hearing back to normal...

Db

Damir, I had a friend who bought an S/W 357 snubby. He was afraid to pull the trigger, so I took him to my backyard and squeezed off a few. That started the problem in my right ear. Ride cymbals finished it up!

John,

I was lucky so my problem went away after couple of months, but there for a second I tought I messed up my hearing. We shot my S&W 442 .38 sp over thanksgiving and it was much more fun than 357mag. , 357mag in a Airlite smal frame revolver will hurt your hand for real...now days I have no problem with cymbals, I don`t play....

Db

DB,
My favorite fun gun was my 44mag Redhawk. But a dozen shots was all I could take! Even with that heavy frame. I traded it for a 1939 Gibson Console Grande. So at least this post is "steel related!"
JB

I've had ringing in my ears for about twenty years and it never goes away. I went to an ENT and had it checked out. He said there is no cure. One thing he told me was that if you have ringing in one ear only, you need to get an MRI. Ringing in one ear is often caused by a tumor. Ringing in both ears is usually the result of coming in contact with loud noise or music.

Allen Peterson

Assuming you eliminate all the medical reasons (high blood pressure etc.), I found that cutting out caffeine from coffee, Coke and other soda, and eating healthily helps. Mine is worse after I ride my motorbike or play a gig, but decent earpugs help.

I too have this terrible high pitched ringing.... my doctor told me years ago there is nothing that you can do for it... the only thing that helps me sleep or deal with it is a loud fan in my bedroom and I keep the fan in my car on high ALL the time... burn through a few fan motors but it beats that aggravating high pitched annoying ringggggggggggggggg ... High C# I think... hmmmm maybe cause I'm a girl

Mine is the result of a probable TIA back in 2003. It waxes and wanes but never disappears. Ibuprofen aggravates it.

It's loud enough to drown out my alarm clock so I don't hate it completely.

HELLO ALL
So im not alone with ringing ears mine sounds more like a leaking air line i got this from noisy fans in the furniture industry i had two very large fans for fume extraction to one side of me so my left ear is the one that got it we used to laugh at wearing ear defenders well im not laughing now although it comes in handy when i dont want to here someone i just turn the other way and say WHAT! I think this can affect balance well now i know why im going round in circles learning the steel.
regards to all vic uk.

I lectured on Health and Safety in a part of the UK that probably had one of the highest numbers of tinnitus sufferers in the country due to the nature of the local industries. When I retired there was no known absolute cure for tinnitus and I have not heard of any break through that will have changed that situation.

There is a technique called 'masking' and SOME serious sufferers who have been made mentally ill due to the incessant noise have found relief in what could be likened to white noise. I don't understand the actual mechanics of it but it seems that noises such as waterfalls somehow cancel out the tinnitus 'ringing' and there were people who claimed that listening to such noises gave them a relief such as they had not had in years.

There are some downloadable sounds at http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/index.php?q=node/115


For those of you who are serious sufferers it may be worth trying but please note that I did say that only SOME found these gave relief.

Just tried them. Didn't work for me. Darn!

I'm pretty young to have tinnitus (33!) but I've had it for a while; too close to too many cymbal crashes, I suspect!

I asked my acupuncturist (who is also a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner) about this problem. He suggested a series of stretches that I find not only get rid of the ringing right away, but feel good and actually enhance my hearing. Hear we go:

!. With your thumb and first finger, pull down on your earlobes, toward the floor. It shouldn't hurt, just a nice strong stretch. Hold for 15-20 seconds.

2. Pull your ears back (away from your face) from the middle of the ear and hold again.

3. Pull up from the top, once again holding for 15-20 seconds.

That's it! Hope this helps, as it has helped quite a few musician friends.

Never, ever, ever sit down next to the drummer. Those damn cymbals are ear death - I know a musician who had mild hearing loss in one ear, he was leaning over next to the drummer when they were setting up and the guy hit a cymbal crash - now he's stone-cold deaf in that ear, permanently.

http://www.extremeheadphones.com/ex-29.html