Our Ears After a Couple of Hours

[vindibona1]

Originally Posted by Tico

Get the highest quality earplugs you can afford.
Use them.

Originally Posted by woodbox

Yep.
Sensory adaption.
Simple as that.

Originally Posted by rokdog49

That's all well and good folks but my post was about me having to strum harder to hear myself after a couple of hours.

Yes!!!!

Ear plugs- Best investment you will ever make. If you get good ones, i.e. professional musicians plugs [see pic below] you'll find you're using them on many occasions. I keep mine in a small pouch on my belt at all times.

That sensory adaptation thing is real. I often use my ear plugs in noisy restaurants because they allow me to hear BETTER! You hear conversation better as they eliminate much of the sound bouncing around the room. The good ones only attenuate sound levels but keep the timbre of the sound relatively the same. So after a few minutes of wearing the plugs you never even know they're in your ears (except when you chew ). Your ears adapt to the sound level so well that everything sounds like normal volume... except it's not. You take them out and go "whoa... that's loud". If you can't afford the $250 to go get a set of professional plugs then you have to give up something to be able to.

Continuing the "sensory adaptation" thought... The ear not only adapts to volume but to tone as well. I know that when I play one guitar, then pick up another the second is oh so different than I expected it to be. My favorite guitar can sound like cah-cah if my ears have been accustomed to something right before it. And sometimes comparison is the only way to evaluate the sound of an instrument because your ear adapt so easily. Sometimes trying to evaluate the sound of an instrument is like trying to measure jello with a slinky.

Sometimes I'll pick up a guitar and go "Wow... Why did I ever buy that other one?" Or, it can work in reverse. Or I can be at a gig where one guy [playing a Martin with a piezo pickup] can be SO bright that I struggle to put my sound in a pleasing sound space.

And to Rokdog49... While I don't find myself strumming harder after a couple hours, I do overplay when I don't get enough sound through the monitor and have no control of that (or anything else for that matter except the volume dial on my guitar). Makes me nuts and I know I'm not getting the best sound out of my guitar because of it.

[tippy5]

The best guitar centric concert I have ever been to was 1974 Santana/John Mclaughlin at the Santa Monica Civic. It actually exists, crudely, on utube.

These two masters were 110% successful in delivering me and their audience into stratospheres of uncomparable, testosterone fueled, disorienting ecstasy.
It was a 9.0 earthquake. I mean I was blown away even after seeing so many Mahvishnu, RTF and Pharoah Saunders etc....modal, early 70's, concerts. Billy Cobham and others were truly psyched for that show.

But at the end of the show I was drained and even had a headache. What a concert. Now I think I know why. It wasn't the volume but possibly ear fatigue?

[Marihino]

Originally Posted by Jambi

My guitar suddenly seems VERY LOUD when I sit down to play after putting the baby in bed for the night. Especially to my wife.

unfortunately, I can relate.