" surely the point of a session is to interact with the other musicians. I can't see headphones exactly assisting with that."

Steve - thet's why I specifically mentioned ear bud headphones.

Being 'in ear' they are very discrete, and do not need to isolate the wearer from the ambient room sound and other musicians.

Depends how loud you drive them, and if they are inefficient at sealing out external noise.

Anyway, it's easy enough to just pop one in for monitoring your instrument,
and keep the other ear 'naked' exposed to everything else going on in the room.

For a while I gigged in an electric band playing an electro acoustic
mando plugged straight to the mixer desk.
Our PA and monitors were usually crap, so I could rarely hear what I was playing.
Just had to trust I was hitting the right chords in the right place for each song.

That's why I went back to lugging combo amps around on trains and buses..


Btw.. it should be no surprise I am very keen on Vox products..

One of my latest toys is this VOX SL1G 1G Amplifier Multi Effect Stomplab Pedal

£44 from Amazon. [plus £7 ish for a decent 500 mA 9 volt adaper]

I've owned & used a lot of Digital amp emulation multi FX
since the very first Line 6 Pod back in the late 90s.

This very affordable Vox is astonishing value for money.
It's the first time I've encountered one
where some of the presets are totally useable straight out the box,
and the valve amp simulations are now more convincing than ever
played through a solid state combo amp / power amp.

It's very compact, can run off batteries, and is probably what I'd now use
for headphone monitoring in loud sessions.

[I'd presume electro acoustic pickups piezo pickups might not be perfectly impedence compatible,
but would probably still work fairly ok as a compromise...???
dunno - not needed to try it yet]]