Protecting your hearing from excessive noise

markguitarblaze

Can anyone please recommend a supplier for ear pieces to protect your hearing while playing live. Located in the central belt of Scotland so may need to be by post? Thanks.

CaseOfAce

I use these (when I'm trying to be smart! - I really should get into the habit of having them in all the time when playing with the band)

Alpine Music Safe Pro Black Edition

I use the silver inputs (there's 3 levels) which seems to not cut out too much of the sound.

You can order on Amazon etc..etc  give 'em a go and see if they work? Otherwise it's pricey custom moulds...

markguitarblaze

Thanks - I'm really looking for a supplier for the moulded type - appreciating that they're not cheap but need to prevent further damage to my hearing and further aggravating tinitus

maltingsaudio

Contact the MU https://musiciansunion.org.uk/membership-benefits/musicians-hearing-health-scheme

Haych

Try Ultimate Ear, they do a variety of different hearing protection for many different applications including musicians.  I've just had a set of motorcycle plugs made by them.

In the past I've also used Elacin for music ear plugs (good), Variphone for industrial ear plugs (not so good) and ACS, again for music (good).

Ear impressions can be done at quite a few places these days, Boots and Spec Savers often can do them.  When I ordered my first set of Elacin ER15s about 24 years ago I had to have the impressions cast at the hospital!

Oh, and if you've never had ear impressions cast before, it's a divine experience!

With Ultimate Ear, the casts are taken and then given to you which you then mail off to Ultimate Ear for the plugs to be made.  Ultimate Ear will take care of almost everything for you - you tell them where you are at the time of placing the order and they will find the nearest place who can make the casts for you.

When I had the ACS and Elacin plugs made, the casts were taken and then sent away by the person making the impressions to the ear plug manufacturer.  I never saw those casts again.

With Ultimate Ear, they will mail your casts back to you so you can use them again if you want to order more stuff from them - just send the casts back with your new order and no need to have new impressions taken.

You do have to pay extra to have the impressions cast, though.  It's only about £25 but it's on top of the price you pay to Ultimate Ear for their product.

Hope this helps and all the best.

CarpeDiem

I use ACS custom moulded which are a good fit and work well. I got the impressions taken at Boots, which was a straight forward process, and they’ll be posted to you by ACS when they’re made. They’re available with different levels of sound reduction. 

bobeffect

I'd too would recommend looking at ACS custom moulds. Mine have been good to practice and gig with. They are very helpful on the phone too if you have any questions. 

mrkb

ACS store the scans of your ears taken from the moulds (so you dont need to keep a physical copy) - so reordering is simple.

markguitarblaze

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to help.

Happy New Year to you all.

guitarmangler

I’ve got the acs via the health for musicians scheme. Very good. £40 if you can jump through the hoops

https://www.hearformusicians.org.uk/

Musicwolf

CaseOfAce said:

Alpine Music Safe Pro Black Edition

There's no need to shout!  ................. It's about half past nine

markguitarblaze

guitarmangler said:

I’ve got the acs via the health for musicians scheme. Very good. £40 if you can jump through the hoops

https://www.hearformusicians.org.uk/

Thanks - it appears that this scheme is for professional musicians only now.

mrkb

markguitarblaze said:

guitarmangler said:

I’ve got the acs via the health for musicians scheme. Very good. £40 if you can jump through the hoops

https://www.hearformusicians.org.uk/

Thanks - it appears that this scheme is for professional musicians only now.

It always was. You just need to define what “professional” is. Big up your musical tasks without lying and it might get approved. Needs a reference to corroborate your application.

markguitarblaze

Thanks but proof of earnings is required and I could not live off mine and they a lot lower than my pension.

Snags

I appreciate you're after the moulded variety, but the basic Alpine's as mentioned above are actually very good at cutting volume without trashing sound quality unduly. I've got a set that I've used at various jams where there's a tendency for things to get loud, and (true sign of becoming an old git) now tend to take them to gigs when I'm going as a punter. They're very effective, and worth a punt for £20 before indulging in a much more expensive option.

thomasw88

markguitarblaze said:

Thanks but proof of earnings is required and I could not live off mine and they a lot lower than my pension.

I would strongly recommend applying anyway..  

Roland

However small the earnings, they are still earnings

rockmonster

ACS every time. Everything else was a waste of money. I’m on my second set in the last 10 years I recon. How much is your hearing worth? Just my two penn’orth.