Contact Lenses..

[Mickyk]

Does anyone wear Contact whilst playing,but wears normal Glasses when not.

I wear Glasses when i'm playing all the time,but i'm thinking of contacts when playing in the band

Anyone?

 

[NoRhino]

As long as your eyes react well to contact lenses you'll be fine.  Mine didn't and I ditched them years ago.

Now I don't wear spex when gigging. Fortunately I'm short sighted and can see my fretboard, amp and band mates.  Punters can be blurry though. 

[ezbass]

I’ve never worn contacts when playing, as I tend to use them for outdoor activities. However, why not? A supply of some disposables is probably the best way to go. My eyes have a tendency to get a bit dry indoors with contacts, but that’s just me.

[MacDaddy]

Tried it once. My glasses are for distance so when I used contacts I couldn't see anything close up! 😖

[neepheid]

Sorry, can't help you - I wear glasses almost all the time.  Sleeping, bathing, "swimming" are about the only times I can think of that they're not on my face.  I don't even think about it - I've been wearing glasses since I was 8

 

[police squad]

used to wear contacts for gigging all the time. I sweat a lot and it gets in my eyes, so by the end of the gig I was ready to take them out. I used to carry my lens case and pop them in the fluid and clean them when I got home, 

then I went to disposables and used to take them out at the end of the gig and chuck em away.

 

Just over 20 years ago I had lasik surgery and didn't need anything at all. Wonderful it was.

 

Now I need reading glasses but that's no biggy either

[Mickyk]

2 hours ago, NoRhino said:

As long as your eyes react well to contact lenses you'll be fine.  Mine didn't and I ditched them years ago.

Now I don't wear spex when gigging. Fortunately I'm short sighted and can see my fretboard, amp and band mates.  Punters can be blurry though. 

Yes i'm long sighted but the funny thing is according to the optician i am only long sighted from about two feet away from the fretboard.Recently i have been struggling to see the Fretboard. So Compensating for that i have been playing by Muscle Memory,my playing is suffering i think. So i am thinking of trying Contacts and was wondering if anyone else has this problem ,or is it only me.Not the worse thing in the world to happen i know but it is starting to annoy me now.Or should i just concede  that i'm an old git now and carry on regardless.

[Mickyk]

31 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

Tried it once. My glasses are for distance so when I used contacts I couldn't see anything close up! 😖

I'm the opposite.

[ezbass]

55 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I've been wearing glasses since I was 8

About the same for me, maybe even a wee bit earlier. They're kind of who I am.

 

31 minutes ago, police squad said:

Just over 20 years ago I had lasik surgery and didn't need anything at all.

I went to have this done ages ago. Whilst in the waiting room the assistant came out and said that they couldn't perform the procedure because the machine wouldn't calibrate. I was an office equipment engineer at the time, working with lasers, so I knew what this meant and the possible fall out if it happened mid procedure. I never went back to have it done. 

[doomed]

1 hour ago, MacDaddy said:

Tried it once. My glasses are for distance so when I used contacts I couldn't see anything close up! 😖

See your optician and ask if you can have one lens for distance and one for close up stuff, I've been wearing mine like that for a good few years now, worth a try.

[Cliff Edge]

1 hour ago, doomed said:

See your optician and ask if you can have one lens for distance and one for close up stuff, I've been wearing mine like that for a good few years now, worth a try.

I’ve used contacts for years, used to wear them all the time but as I got older I would use them less. These days I wear them when out and about mostly in the summer months so I can use decent sunglasses. Very occasionally on gigs. 
I have varifocal lenses in the specs as I’m short sighted from an early age, and I now need additional help with reading. 
My contacts are monthly Bausch & Lomb Purevision 2 multifocals for distance and reading.  Can’t recommend them enough. I can see the audience, the fretboard and the charts on the iPad. 

[bassbiscuits]

Yes I wear glasses normally, but contact lenses for gigs. Unfortunately, my prescription is quite weird and mismatched, so I only wear a lens in one eye.

 

It means I can't really see well enough to drive with them, so tend to wear glasses to and from the gig, and pop lenses in for my time onstage. They are daily disposable Boots jobs - decent enough for my needs.

 

They are quite limiting tho and keep me focused on distance vision, unless I then bring a set of reading glasses too. Such is life on the outskirts of 50.

 

 

 

[Roger2611]

Big dots on my neck, set list, largely committed to memory, but also written in big letters and I look as cool as I did 30 years ago, just with a bit less hair🤣 

[MichaelDean]

It'd be fine if you're used to contacts. Worth a try if not!

 

I've tried them, but due to the level of astigmatism I have, I can't have the lighter contacts. I could feel them all of the time and they moved when I blinked making me feel a bit drunk. I was told it was a textbook fit. Needless to say, I haven't stuck with them!

[TimR]

Verifocal contact lenses. They're the way forward. 

 

I tend to wear disposabale contact lenses for gigs and for sport. The rest of the time I wear verifocal glasses. I don't need glasses to read so by the time you get to the bottom of the glasses they have no prescription. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by TimR

[jazzmanb]

Took to lenses straight away in the 80s 

I'm that age now where lenses are no good close up so gigs fine apart from setting up  leads and pedals etc in the dark . I wear glasses 70% of the time now as they are varifocal 

[TimR]

12 minutes ago, jazzmanb said:

Took to lenses straight away in the 80s 

I'm that age now where lenses are no good close up so gigs fine apart from setting up  leads and pedals etc in the dark . I wear glasses 70% of the time now as they are varifocal 

Cheap reading glasses are useful in those circumstances. 

[Nicko]

I am very long sighted, have severe astigmatism and suffer from blepharitis.  I wore contacts for gigging and not much else - they were uncomfortable after a few hours so all day wear wasn't an option.  I would love to wear contacts occasionally but my prescription and the astigmatism means I cannot use the daily option which would be perfect if you only want them once a week or something.  Getting 14 day contacts to wear once is pricey.

 

Most opticians will do a free fitting and you've got nothing to lose.

[Dazm66]

I’ve been wearing lenses most of the time for about 30 years. Now in my 50s have moved to mono vision which is where I have one weaker for reading like @doomed says above. So have always worn them for gigs with no problems.