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I bought a cheap pair of musicians earplugs to try in band, and I was not impressed. The pair I bought completely stifled my sound, and made my eyes vibrate when I would play the tuba; I could tell within 8 measures that they weren’t for me.

Does anyone know of any decent earplugs for musicians that don’t effect the sound of the instrument that much? I’m trying to keep my tinnitus at bay, and hopefully not damage my ears any further. Thanks everyone!

Go see your audiologist. It will be worth it.

I second going to the audiologist.... a good one will create a set of custom earplugs for you by pouring this icky gunk into your ear (it's not that creepy).

A little less expensive, but still not cheap....

https://eargasm.com

The thing that got me with the icky gunk was the total absence of sound. Freaky, and a little frightening.

make sure to move your jaw a lot while the gunk's setting in your ear

MKTuba wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 6:05 pm I bought a cheap pair of musicians earplugs to try in band, and I was not impressed.

Which ones were they? Which brand?

Not too sure. My college had a musicians wellness fair and had some for sale. I think they were $10. I can get a brand for you later.

Ok, cool;

I've had foamies, custom Westone, Etymotics, and Earasers (so far). Foam earplugs are only good for rock concerts and gun ranges. I tended to use the Etymotics and Earasers the most because the Westone pair didn't fit after a couple years. Used them for a lot of indoor rehearsals and gigs, and wished I had started using them as far back as junior high.

I have tried all kinds of ear protection over the years:
Foam plugs "borrowed" from the workplace
Over-ear shells
Customised silicone plugs with filter-inserts

The first two should be available at any hardware store for small change and have proven most effective for practising purposes.
These won´t do a lot of good when used on-stage or during band practise, though.

The fancy silicone plugs were VERY expensive and bought at a local combined optometrist / hearing aid technician
They are cast to fit MY ears exactly and can be fitted with an array of acoustic filters to my specifications.
It´s common practise with band musicians to choose light to medium filters that won´t dampen/alter sound all that much, reducing noise by just a few dB.
I can also take out the filters and apply headphone inserts instead, which offer ear protection close to foam plugs´ performance (about 18 dB) and allow in-ear monitoring.

ALL of these will provide the following effect:
Normally, sound picked up by your ears over the air will overwhelm sound conveyed through body tissue to your ears.
The hearing center in your brain may even compensate that structure-borne sound alltogether and calculate it out of your sound perception.
While you wear ANY sound protection, sound generated at your embouchure and travelling through skull and jawbones to your ears will become the predominant sound signal with characteristics totally alien to what you normally perceive as YOUR sound.
Just compare your own perception of your voice as you normally speak vs. combined with ear plugs vs. played back at you from a voice recording:
THREE totally different sound impressions.

As a tubist in concert band situations, it´s good enough using ONE foam ear plug in the ear pointing towards that suspended cymbal or drumset you´re trying to fend off.
Everybody else will point their bells away from you and won´t hurt too much.

The silicone plugs with light filters will help when trumpets are sitting behind you, but take a while getting used to:
your brain will need time and practise to recalibrate the connection between how hard you blow vs. how loud you sound to yourself vs. what´s perceived by those around you.