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Eric Clapton & tinnitus
Just found out this morning watching TV news that Eric Clapton is suffering with tinnitus. Doing a little sleuth work via Google it turns out it's not just tinnitus; he's also losing his hearing and has peripheral neuropathy which causes weakness in the hands and feet.
Here's but one of many articles on this that all say the same thing: https://www.billboard.com/articles/c...itus-diagnosis Upshot of this is: protect your hearing while you still have it. I deal with tinnitus every day; sometimes I get two or three frequencies happening at the same time. Can be painful as hell and there's no real cure. Oh sure there are therapies that can mask it to an extent but it never goes away. I have to wonder how many more guitarists deal with this that we don't know about? I know about Pete Townshend. |
#2
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
I read a similar article this morning. Said that he only has one performance scheduled this year.
Years ago I had some custom made "ear plugs" made for me that attenuate the sound level by -20db, while supposedly letting all frequencies pass through equally. They don't quite do that, but I wear them when I am playing the drums. For guitar, I don't turn the amp up too loud anymore, and often put the amp in a closet and mic it up there while I am in another room. Of course, the damage I may have done in my younger years (shooting guns, playing loud music, etc.) gives me a little ringing in my ears, but not too bad. I do remember being in the front few rows of a Ted Nugent concert in 1977 and only being able to stand that close for a few songs before we had to move back. That was in the days of "festival seating" where you could stand anywhere on the floor of the arena.
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"Whiskey Bottle...Brand New Car...Oak Tree You're in my Way" RVZ Digi 002 rack , Command 8, Behringer ADA 8000, Tascam M-320B Mixer, Alesis Monitor Two Speakers, Vintage and Modern Tube Amps, Fender American Strat, 1973 Gibson SB-450 Bass, Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro, Roland W-30 Keyboard, Preimier XPK Fusion Drum Kit. |
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
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My method of hearing production now is a pair of electronic ear muffs from Dillon Precision like one would use at a shooting range. I have the older ones that pretty much shut completely off; the newer ones don't. A 12 gauge Ithaca 37 gives off a pretty loud bang What hasn't helped me is I also worked for four years in a steel mill; no hearing protection available at the time (early 70's). Ted Nugent - now there's an extreme volume level experience. We have a Great Adventure amusement park not far from my house. Wife and I went to see Uncle Ted back in the 80's and sat maybe 15 feet from his pa monitor stack. GA concerts at night were literally a trip; as soon as the lights went down the doobies got fired up. Wife fell asleep about halfway through the concert and my ears rang for three days afterward. BTW we did not partake of said substances. |
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
I haven't gone to the shooting range in years, but when I did I would wear the in-ear foam plugs, plus the over the ear muffs. I was shooting my S&W 44 magnum with "hot" loads, a 45 Long Colt revolver, and "lighter" revolvers like a 357 Magnum, and the double protection did a pretty good job. Hard to talk to anyone though.
Ted Nugent was definitely the loudest concert I attended, and I use to go to pretty much any rock act (and later country) that came to whatever town I was living in the late 70's through the 80's. Favorite concert: Rolling Stones-3 times (New Orleans 1978, Dallas 1982 and Houston early 1990's). Best live performance: Supertramp, Tulsa 1981?, Paul McCartney, Houston 1990's
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"Whiskey Bottle...Brand New Car...Oak Tree You're in my Way" RVZ Digi 002 rack , Command 8, Behringer ADA 8000, Tascam M-320B Mixer, Alesis Monitor Two Speakers, Vintage and Modern Tube Amps, Fender American Strat, 1973 Gibson SB-450 Bass, Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro, Roland W-30 Keyboard, Preimier XPK Fusion Drum Kit. |
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
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Actually the loudest concert I ever attended was not Uncle Ted's but a Celtic Woman one here at the local sports arena. We still had a hockey team and they put the floor down over the ice. CW not only had their own PA but also used the arena's gear as well. For some reason I didn't think they would be that loud as I'd seen several of their concerts on dvd and the levels seemed okay so I left my hearing protection muffs at home. Big freakin' mistake! It hurt so bad (we had floor seats about 20 rows back from the stage) I was in pain like you wouldn't believe. Partway through the first set I had my ears covered by my hands. At intermission I went up a couple of levels and asked one of the ushers if I could sit further back because of the loudness and because there were empty seats she said okay. My wife joined me. From that vantage point I looked down at the soundboard and every meter was solid red . I even questioned the board jockey and he could care less. To be fair he wasn't Celtic Woman's jockey but the house dude. Still he should have paid attention. |
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
Lived in Seattle back in the Seventies saw Terrible Ted twice. He blew out a window in Seattle Center during sound check when he turned up after the venue said "No louder than this". He was not invited back. The next time he came through he was booked into the Hec Ed Pavillion on the UW campus. Same thing, told don't go higher than this. Immediately cranked it up and blew ceiling tiles off. Was not invited to return. He was religious about wearing earplugs though so his hearings probably better than mine now. I wear ear plugs when playing drums (the cymbals are what kill me) and stay out of direct line of any loud amp or move out of the same room. Luckily I don't have any ringing yet but I'm definitely more sensitive to the loud stuff now
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
I think Ted used Super Twin Reverbs back in that time frame. 6 -6L6 Power tubes putting out 185 Watts RMS. I have one of those amps, which I had converted to a Twin Reverb by taking out 2 of the power tubes and adding circuitry to make it switchable between 25/100 Watts. Still very loud and so heavy that I built a head cabinet to hold the chassis and removed it from the amp cabinet. Then I put in a wood blank painted black to cover the area in the cabinet where the jacks and knobs on the chassis were. Also added a computer fan to cool the tubes, which originally there were 14.
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"Whiskey Bottle...Brand New Car...Oak Tree You're in my Way" RVZ Digi 002 rack , Command 8, Behringer ADA 8000, Tascam M-320B Mixer, Alesis Monitor Two Speakers, Vintage and Modern Tube Amps, Fender American Strat, 1973 Gibson SB-450 Bass, Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro, Roland W-30 Keyboard, Preimier XPK Fusion Drum Kit. |
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
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Re: Eric Clapton & tinnitus
Thanks for the reminder Jack, I started wearing ear protection for rehearsals, gigs and events around 5 years ago. Before that I spent over 15 years gigging without protection of any kind, I don't recommend it.
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