Headphone questions

[wolvie56]

Hey everybody. My dad plays the drums and I play bass guitar and we jam all the time. My dad wears Heros High Fidelity ear plugs with cheapo Radio Shack ear muff style headphones also. I just normally wear the same ear muff headphones (I know, I should also be wearing the ear plugs too like my dad tells me to). But now he wants to get a pair of Sennheiser HD- 280 Pro isolation headphones for both of us instead. My question is, are these phones going to muffle out my bass to the point of not being able to here myself playing? Or do you think that these will cancel out the damaging highs and lows of our playing to the level that we want without causing the problem of me not being able to hear myself playing my bass? Thanks in advance.

 

[otaypanky]

I bet you could just EQ your amp so it could be easily heard with the phones on

 

[NWBasser]

Hmm, I just use the Hearos hi-fi's playing in a full band.

I hear everything quite well and the bass in particular.

Those muffled headphones will really kill dynamics.

Fitted musicians earpieces are a good solution too.

 

[deeaa]

Why the headphones? Are you using them for monitoring or what?

I've used EAR Hi-Fi earplugs a lot...in the first 1o years or so of band playing I didn't wear anything though. Then the EARs for many years. But now I have those molded in ear plugs, which are good. But I like to not push them in all the way, or maybe just use one a lot of the time anyway. I never use any plugs on gigs...in general I hate to wear anything, but after over 20 years playing REALLY loud I feel I really should.

Anyway my vote goes to EAR hi-fis for affordable solution, but molded ones are great albeit expensive. I just need to come up with a way to make them more sticky, they tend to drop out of my ear because the silicone is so slick.

But if you're using headphones for monitoring, I'd venture that'd be enough protection in itself.

 

[Katastrophe]

+1 to otaypanky. Fiddle with your eq settings a bit.

Also, guitar player Paul Gilbert uses isolation headphones live. A Google search could get you to the brand he uses. They might be expensive, though.

I've used regular, cheapo plugs for years. They've worked fine for me, and are easily replaceable if I lose 'em. I don't miss out on anything, as long as the sound is EQed correctly. A mushy mess sounds like a mushy mess, no matter what the volume level is.