[Trombone-l] earplugs?

[George Carr]

> >>I wanted to make a business purchase of some nice earplugs before the
> >>end of the year.  Anyone have recommendations?  I'm interested in
> >>plugs that only block above certain decibel levels.

I went through the rigmarole of visiting and audiologist and getting
musicians' earplugs, which are in fact very good and are carefully
designed to block sound evenly across the whole spectrum - all of the
mass-produced earplugs I tried let lots of bass frequencies through,
and I often felt like I was playing poorly because I couldn't hear the
well-quieted horn section over the un-quieted drums and bass.  So the
musicians' earplugs worked very well, and were much more comfortable.
But I did in fact lose them after a few months, and couldn't justify
the $160 replacement expense - I play very few rock/amplified gigs
that require them.  So I'm back to the plastic artilleryman earplugs I
got from Army Surplus for $8 - they even come with a keychain.  :)

George