Changes in hearing, humidity and Temperature

[Marty C]

Hi Guys,
Need to pull from your experiences. I usually practice in the early morning in my bonus room. This morning before work, I thought my new Taylor sounded great, plugged direct into my S1 Pro. I thoroughly enjoyed my time this morning.

I came home tonight, plugged in and I thought is sounded way bright and tinny. Actually horrible.

It has rained all day on the east coast and my bonus room is around 54% humidity. It is usually 38-40. I am working on battery only so I don’t have any issues from lightening damage. I changed batteries, power cords, even plugged into my LB mini. All similar results. My guitar stays in its case when I am not playing and locked in a closest.

Could this be:
- A moisture issue
- Something wrong with my pick up
- My hearing from this morning to tonight (Maybe blood pressure related)

My strings are Elixer Polyweb medium and my pick up is ES 2. It has worked great up to today. But now the treble frequency is overly pronounced, mainly sounds Like the B string is overly bright, lost the midrange and the bass is low.

I am 57 and wonder if this is just a heath/ hearing issue. The guitar sounds fine/normal unplugged. Before I start adjusting something that sounded great this morning, I wanted your input.

Thanks guys.

[Methos1979]

That seems odd. My guitar tone will change a little bit acoustically, but I've never noticed any sort of drastic change and certainly even less so amplified. I have had blood pressure changes affect my hearing but mostly my tinnitus. If my blood pressure is up from being sick then my tinnitus just screams which affects my hearing.

[Ben M.]

Ears can be fickle little things. Sometimes they like rock and roll and other times they prefer country.

Sometimes meatloaf is delicious, sometimes you're just not in the mood for it.

Sometimes you feel like a nut sometimes you don't.

Maybe it'll sound better tomorrow.

[DownUpDave]

I have experienced what I call “fussy ears”, sometimes your favorite flavour cannot satisfy them. There are times my favourite guitar sounds terrible or I like something else better. Some days I like warm, some days bright. There have been days when everything sounds crap or everything sounds great.

Our mood, health, emotions, energy level etc all play a big part in how we perceive and process information.

[Peter Z]

But don't underestimated the mood and emotions of our guitars! :-)

What if just one of my guitars has a bad day and the others sound right as they should? That happens here from time to time.

[dcopper]

Unless everything else around you sounds “off”, it is not your ears.
Just give it a day and re-try.

[varmonter]

I find that if I play and find settings I like I try to save them. I find if I fiddle around too long that I tend to tweak too much and then ruin the preset.
Only noticeable when I come back to it later.

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by Marty C

Could this be:
- A moisture issue
- Something wrong with my pick up
- My hearing from this morning to tonight (Maybe blood pressure related)

Thanks guys.

As someone else suggested, does anything else sound noticeably different? If you have an audio system play a recording; if you have any guitar-friends see what they sound like.

[Marty C]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

That seems odd. My guitar tone will change a little bit acoustically, but I've never noticed any sort of drastic change and certainly even less so amplified. I have had blood pressure changes affect my hearing but mostly my tinnitus. If my blood pressure is up from being sick then my tinnitus just screams which affects my hearing.

Now that you mention it, my ears are really ringing today. Could be my blood pressure or medication. Then again, maybe my ears are like everything else. They are well rested and fresh in the morning and tired and strained in the evening after a long day.

I thought back and remember that I had horribly loud feedback when I plugged in and turned the S1 Pro on. I had accidentally hit the volume knob to full when I was setting the Bose up on its stand. I may have temporarily damaged my hearing. Sort like it was in my 20’s the day after a rock concert.

Strained an ear muscle. Why not. Everything else is starting to hurt. Getting old is tough.

Thanks for all your input!

[Peter Z]

Marty ...... if we could turn back time, just 20 years or so ...... and then again ....

Transatlantic greetings from a tinitus friend (those guns during military service :-( ).