Do You Think I Can Still Practice Electric Guitar at Home?

I have tinnitus from listening to the iPod with earphones at high volumes during past 4 years. I stopped listening in total unless its from my turntable. But can I still practice guitar with distortion? I never practiced my guitar at high volumes. Not even medium. I always put it in the low volume where I can hear it clearly, but enough to make there room vibrate or anything. Never get ear pain when practicing guitar either. Should I risk it?

Also, another question, can I listen to HEADphones at low volumes? Or should I avoid headphones as well?

 

I can't speak to the guitar, but I listen to music with headphones regularly just at much lower volume than I did before T became an issue. The music I listen to tends to be more mellow than when I was younger. I find it helpful and have noticed no negative effects.

 

I play electric at low volumes both clean and dirty. No problems. Can't play with drums anymore though.

 

Yes to both. I play electric at low volume. Though I don't use headphones or buds myself there is no reason not to use them at a low volume. Enjoy

 

Electric guitar may be one of the best instruments to play when having tinnitus. It's acoustic volume is very very soft and you can use a small amp to get the low volume you want

Compare that to acoustic stringed instruments like a violin which you hold near your ears, or... *gasp* wind instruments resonating in your mouth.


I find the headphones-thing tricky. It's probably possible, but it's easy to turn them up too loud when recording or when there's a lot of ambient noise. I used to listen to music on the bus at a low volume level, but when I put in my earbuds late at night in a quiet room, the same level seemed quite loud.

 

Yup. An old fiddler told me almost 40 years ago, "If you're going to play the fiddle, you're going to have a knot in your neck and ringing in your ears."

 

Wow... That's quite, uh... down to earth.

 

Others have already chimed in but yes, you can play guitar at moderate levels without causing further damage, I believe.

One of the important things with T is getting your life back, so if you love playing the guitar, play it.

 

If you are able to hear your own normal speaking voice it can't be too loud Its an easy way to check.

 

My ears do weird thing when I bend a note, on acoustic or low level electric. My ears tense up, or 'cave in.'
Only on the bent notes.

 

Totally! If you are using some pedals like distortion, fuzz, or anything that can increase the volume I would recommend getting a compressor to put at the end of your chain. More specifically, an optical compressor.

What the compressor does for you is even out all the volume of your pedals and guitar so that way you do not get any loud spikes. This is very important to practicing at home. There have been times where I was not using my compressor and I would kick on my Fuzz Factory without checking the volume... Let's just say it got really loud really quick. I now do not have to worry with the compressor at the end of my chain!

However, this is all subject to taste. I really like the sound of moderate to heavy compression on a strat, but you may hate it with whatever set-up you have.