ring modulator effect on my ears... WHAT??

[ubertar]

Has anyone else experienced this? This is bizarre and kind of distressing. I was playing electric guitar, unamplified, and noticed that when playing on the A and B strings, there was an added note, like a ring modulator effect. It was only on those strings. I looked for some physical cause on the guitar for it, but found nothing. Figured maybe it was from the strings being really old, which they are, and planned to change the strings. Then my wife came home, and started talking to me, and her VOICE had the same effect, like a ring modulator. My hearing seems otherwise normal, my ears aren't ringing. I've had some low-level tinnitus for many years, from playing in a rock band back in the 90s... this is something completely different. Apparently it's only affecting certain frequencies, or ranges, but it's odd that it was the A and B strings, not adjacent ones. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow back to normal, but this is kind of freaking me out.

Just tested again before sending this, and now it's pretty much all the strings. Tried a different guitar, and same thing. I don't know if it's my ears or my brain or what. Sounds just like a ring modulator.

[The Scum]

Fluid in the inner ear "singing along"?

I swam a lot as a kid, and was always on the verge of an ear infection because my ears were full of pool water. Sometimes it would make really strange, springy sounds - I could stomp my foot, or tap on the right spot of my jaw, and my ear would go "boing." It would eventually drain on it's own.

Try a couple Sudafed...it's allergy season, after all.

[digitaldrummer]

or make an appointment with your favorite ENT and get it checked out. I recently had an issue where I suddenly lost low frequencies in my right ear. ENT said no fluid or infection so it was likely nerve damage. That freaked me the hell out. Gave me some meds, had me do an MRI (no brain tumor thankfully...) and after a month or so I went back for a recheck and my ear was back to normal (which means only the normal loss of playing rock and roll drums next to rock and roll guitar players...). neither he or I could explain why it happened (and most times cochlear nerve damage is permanent!), but I'm glad its back to normal and I was glad to have the check/recheck because when changes like that happen its often difficult to evaluate yourself - your brain gets used to the changes and tries to compensate, and then also takes a while to compensate back to the normal scenario (if that happens) so you can't always clearly tell if it is back to normal or not without a test.

it's also always good to have your hearing checked periodically. I meant to do mine at least every 5 years but somehow it was 10 by the time I got back in... lucky I had kept a paper copy of the previous check because the office said they destroy records after 7 years (thank you HIPAA).

[drumsound]

I immediately thought allergy season could be the culprit as well. A trip to the doctor's office (or possibly a couple of them) does seem in order.

[Recycled_Brains]

It's probably congestion. I sometimes have a strange modulation in my ears if I've had a few beers because I get more clogged up when I drink. Allergies will do it now and then too, especially at night. It's not chronic or persistent though.

[The Scum]

A couple of inexpensive, holistic things that can help:

• A hot compress over the ear/jaw/eustacian tube.
• A big stack of pillows, so you don't lie fully prone, and the goop doesn't flow downhill into your ear.

[The Scum]

And a more dire warning to take it seriously:

A friend had the odd experience that she started to relate to the world like a quarter-step out of tune. Where she'd been able to sing in tune, she started being way out (I forget if it was flat or sharp, but definitely out). She couldn't tell that anything was wrong - she thought things sounded fine.

When it persisted, her family took her to see a doctor, and it was found to be a brain tumor. She was treated, and has fully recovered (in both health and intonation), I believe cancer free for 12+ years now.

[ubertar]

Seems to be ok today... rested my ears for the most part today, not playing music (much). Played guitar a bit, to test, and did not hear the ring mod effect. If it comes back, I'll make an appointment with the doc. I should do it anyway... but was just there, for a scary mole... the dermatologist I was referred to took one look at it and said, "totally benign", shot it with some liquid nitrogen and now it's gone. Not that that's relevant, other than for the fact that I recently saw the doctor and it counted as an annual checkup, whereas if I go again this soon, it won't, and will cost more. But so far it seems better.
The day before this happened, I got a Schoenhut toy piano at a yard sale, and it so happens that I have a couple long pickups I wound years ago for some project but never used, that are the exact right length to cover the row of steel rods that sound the notes. So I cut a window in the back of the piano, attached a steel plate with screws and springs to be adjustable in distance like a guitar pickup to the strings, wired the two pickups as a humbucker, ran it through a bunch of effects, and had a ball. All of this was fairly loud, and went on for quite a while. So that probably had at least something to do with this. I would expect maybe some high-pitched ringing in my ears, but my wife sounding like a Dr. Who dalek? Didn't see that coming. Congestion could be a possible factor, too. There were no accompanying physical sensations in my ears, no vibrating or buzzing. At first it was only on two guitar strings and not the others. So odd.