Bass and Ménière’s disease

[martthebass]

I’ve had this affliction for over a decade but managed to live with the tinnitus, occasional bouts of vertigo and increasing deafness reasonably well.  Unfortunately the latest curve ball it has thrown me is to affect my discrimination of notes lower than low G, it makes them flat. 
Now at low volumes this doesn’t occur but as the volume increases it presents and can make life tough on stage as I have to ignore what I’m playing.

I’m thinking that I would be best going for a simple IEM setup to enable me to play a bit longer; I can’t get the rest of the band to go this way so can someone give me advice on what I would need (and product recommendations) to enable a nice clear low volume feed for me alone in the band situation?

[diskwave]

I have the same condition and Im afraid it's your body tying to tell you to stop, and I don't just mean electrical instrument noise.  Babies screaming, my spouse getting excited about something, machinery, noisy places, outdoors...even playing my other acoustic instruments...its all saying one thing...time to excercise avoidance and use protection .

I now cannot leave the house without ear protection in case I need it....I even have a tiny plastic chk list on the dash in the car with ear plugs in bright red txt to remind me, and forget those fancy muso plugs I have to wear the purple and green undustrial ones as a precaution.

Maybe youll be lucky and can carry on but my future days are seriously messed up and I bet we're not the only ones. Read somewhere that Debbie Harry is in a bad way too. 

[Beedster]

Do you mean essentially feeding the whole mix to you in-ear while excluding all external audio?

[martthebass]

27 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Do you mean essentially feeding the whole mix to you in-ear while excluding all external audio?

Yep, that would be ideal.

[TheGreek]

Can't be as bad as guitarists talking out of their derriere disease...

[BassBunny]

There's a massive IEM topic on here that would be a good place to start. I think it's in the Accessories section or just do a search.

[sandy_r]

5 hours ago, martthebass said:

...

I can’t get the rest of the band to go this way so can someone give me advice on what I would need

...

 

Step 1: Get a new band, mate! 

...

[Bolo]

4 hours ago, greavesbass said:

I have the same condition and Im afraid it's your body tying to tell you to stop, and I don't just mean electrical instrument noise.  Babies screaming, my spouse getting excited about something, machinery, noisy places, outdoors...even playing my other acoustic instruments...its all saying one thing...time to excercise avoidance and use protection .

I now cannot leave the house without ear protection in case I need it....I even have a tiny plastic chk list on the dash in the car with ear plugs in bright red txt to remind me, and forget those fancy muso plugs I have to wear the purple and green undustrial ones as a precaution.

Maybe youll be lucky and can carry on but my future days are seriously messed up and I bet we're not the only ones. Read somewhere that Debbie Harry is in a bad way too. 

I can't stress enough how isolation is only going to make dealing with mild sounds more and more difficult.

Please see about retraining to accept sound into your life again under care of an audiologist or psychologist that is familiar with the problem.

I'm saying this as a medical professional in the field of audiometry.

 

Avoidance can only lead to more misery, social isolation and possibly deep depression. There is a way up and out but it's hard work and nearly impossible without professional help.

[pete.young]

5 hours ago, martthebass said:

I’ve had this affliction for over a decade but managed to live with the tinnitus, occasional bouts of vertigo and increasing deafness reasonably well.  Unfortunately the latest curve ball it has thrown me is to affect my discrimination of notes lower than low G, it makes them flat. 
Now at low volumes this doesn’t occur but as the volume increases it presents and can make life tough on stage as I have to ignore what I’m playing.

I’m thinking that I would be best going for a simple IEM setup to enable me to play a bit longer; I can’t get the rest of the band to go this way so can someone give me advice on what I would need (and product recommendations) to enable a nice clear low volume feed for me alone in the band situation?

If you already have a recorder like a Zoom H4 , you could use that as a kind of mixer. The built-in mikes will pick up ambient sound, the input sockets will take a feed from your bass and an aux out from the desk, and you can plug in a set of ZS10s to the headphone socket.

[Little Dragon]

I too have menieres and have just started to use IEM. Still getting used to the being separated from the sound but can already feel benefits. May be coincidence but also find taking my meds, betahistine dihydrochloride, at evenly spaced intervals throughout the day is important. 

[martthebass]

4 hours ago, Little Dragon said:

I too have menieres and have just started to use IEM. Still getting used to the being separated from the sound but can already feel benefits. May be coincidence but also find taking my meds, betahistine dihydrochloride, at evenly spaced intervals throughout the day is important. 

Thanks LD. I’m fortunate at present that other than a bit of crap balance I only get vertigo very infrequently so don’t need the betahistine.