Set of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky electric guitar strings

Ernie Ball (1930 – September 9, 2004) was an American entrepreneur, musician, and innovator, widely acclaimed as a revolutionary in the development of guitar-related products. An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder Events 1000 - Battle of Svolder, Viking Age. 1379 - Treaty of Neuberg, splitting the Austrian "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company enterprise, or Venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles He began as a club and local television musician and small business entrepreneur, building an international business in guitars and accessories that would eventually gross US$40 million a year. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been

Early years

Born Sherwood Roland Ball in Santa Monica, California, USA, “Ernie” Ball grew up in a musical family. His grandfather wrote the standard, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling^[1] and his father was a car salesman who taught Hawaiian steel guitar on the side. " When Irish Eyes Are Smiling " is a lighthearted song in tribute to Ireland. Steel guitar is A method of playing Slide guitar using a steel. ^[2] Although Ball initially picked up the steel at age nine to please his father, he became bored and gave it up. In his early teens he began to take a renewed interest in the instrument, practicing as many as three hours a day. Within a year he was a member of the Musicians Union. ^[3]

Musician

While still in his early teens, Ball began playing professionally in South Central Los Angeles beer bars. South Los Angeles, often abbreviated as South LA, is the official name for a large geographic and cultural portion lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown By age 19 he joined the Tommy Duncan Band playing pedal steel guitar. Thomas Elmer (Tommy Duncan ( January 11, 1911 &ndash July 25, 1967) was an American Western swing vocalist and Songwriter The pedal steel guitar is a type of Electric guitar that uses a metal slide to stop the strings rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar Duncan, the former lead singer with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, took the band on tour through the Southwestern United States. James Robert (Bob Wills ( March 6, 1905 &ndash May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician Songwriter The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37 During the Korean War, he did a tour of duty in the United States Air Force Band, playing guitar and bass drum. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the ^[4] After the military he returned to Los Angeles and continued playing in barrooms and lounges, until landing a job on the 1950s “Western Varieties” program at KTLA television. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West KTLA, channel 5 is a television station in Los Angeles California. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic ^[5] The position soon gained him wider recognition in the Los Angeles music scene and led to studio work and teaching jobs. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West ^[6]

Entrepreneur

Sometime in 1957 or 1958, Ball opened what was arguably the first music store in the United States to sell guitars exclusively, in Tarzana, California. Tarzana (/tɑɹˈzænə/ is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. ^[7] When music sales reps criticized him for refusing to sell drumsticks and other instruments equipment, Ball replied, “I just want to sell guitars. ” He was repeatedly told that a guitar store would never be a success, but the words rang hollow as people began to come from miles around to visit the shop. ^[8] Eventually, the products spawned from his company would sell in over 5,500 hundred stores and be exported to more than 70 countries of the world. ^[9]

"Slinkys"

With the guitar-based rock revival of the 1960s, Ball noticed that beginning students were having difficulty playing the bestselling Fender #100 medium gauge strings, particularly in holding down the 29-gauge third string. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation of Quincy Illinois is a manufacturer of stringed instruments such as solid-body Electric guitars including the He approached the Fender company with the problem, suggesting a lighter gauge but was rebuffed. Ball convinced a string manufacturer to make him custom sets with a 24-gauge third string which he sold in his store. ^[10] It was the beginning of the Ernie Ball brand. Located not far from Hollywood, the store began to attract a large patronage of professional musicians, including The Beach Boys, Merle Travis, and The Ventures. The Beach Boys is an American rock band Formed in 1961 the group gained popularity for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a California Youth culture Merle Robert Travis ( November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American Country and western singer songwriter The Ventures are an American Instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Ball began to notice a trend with players who were increasingly discarding the sixth string and adding a banjo first string, resulting in an overall lighter gauge set. Again, he contacted Fender with a suggestion for a lighter set and was turned down. This time he continued the quest with Gibson who scoffed at the idea. The Gibson Guitar Corporation of Nashville Tennessee, USA is a manufacturer of acoustic and Electric guitars The company's most popular guitar So, once again he ordered from the manufacturer naming the product the Ernie Ball Slinky. ^[11] Slinky strings traveled the country with the pro musicians who used them and before long, Ball was receiving mail orders from individuals and stores. Still not a string company, he ordered separate strings in various sizes and displayed them in a makeshift case allowing musicians to experiment in creating their own sets. It took off, and in 1967 he sold the store and moved his string business to Newport Beach, California. ^[12]

Today, Ernie Ball Slinkys advertise the guitarists who use these strings on the packaging. A very small sampling of these guitarists includes: Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Slash, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Jeff Beck, Albert Lee, Buddy Guy, Angus Young, The Edge, Synyster Gates, John Mayer, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Brad Paisley, John Fogerty,Dave Navarro and Charles Gallant. Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945 is an English Blues-rock Guitarist, singer Songwriter and Composer James Patrick Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944 is an English Guitarist, Composer and record producer Saul Hudson (born 23 July 1965 more widely known by his stage name Slash, is an English - African American Guitarist best known as the former Steven "Steve" Siro Vai (born June 6 1960 in Carle Place New York) is an American Instrumental rock Guitarist John Peter Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is an American Guitarist best known as a founding member of the Progressive metal band Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born June 24, 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck in Wallington, England) is an English For the city in Minnesota see Albert Lea Minnesota Albert Lee (born December 21, 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning American Blues and rock Guitarist Angus McKinnon Young (born on 31 March 1955 is the lead guitarist songwriter and co-founder of the Australian Hard rock band AC/DC. David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961 in Barking, East London) more widely known by his Moniker The Edge, is a Musician known best Synyster Gates (born Brian Elwin Haner Jr on July 7, 1981) in Huntington Beach, California) also known as Syn, John Clayton Mayer (; born October 16 1977 is an American musician James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963, in Downey California) is the main Songwriter, co-founder vocalist and Rhythm guitarist Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is the Lead guitarist and a songwriter in the band Metallica and has been a member of the band Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is a Grammy Award -winning American Country music Singer-songwriter and guitarist John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American rock singer Songwriter, and Guitarist, best known for his

Marketing innovation

Ernie Ball did not create anything new, he simply saw a demand and improved upon existing products and found ways to better fulfill market demands. ^[13] By the early 1970s he took the company global establishing distributors in Europe and Asia. ^[14] Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townshend and other rock icons were stringing up Slinkys, a trend that continues into the present, making Ernie Ball the second biggest string manufacturer in the country. James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix) (November 27 1942 – September 18 1970 was an American Guitarist, Singer and Songwriter Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945 is an English Blues-rock Guitarist, singer Songwriter and Composer Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (born 19 May 1945 in Chiswick, London) is an English rock Guitarist, Singer, He was unorthodox in his management methods, disregarding market surveys preferring to test products on in the marketplace to see if they would succeed. ^[15] He regarded profit-and-loss as necessary evils and trusted his instincts. In the early eighties the company bought the Music Man Company expanding into the production of high quality guitars, basses and amplifiers with Leo Fender making the instruments and Tom Walker building amps. Music Man is an American Guitar, and Bass guitar manufacturer The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the Generally an amplifier or simply amp, is any device that changes usually increases the amplitude of a signal. Clarence Leonidas Fender ( August 10, 1909 - March 21, 1991) also known as Leo Fender, was an American inventor who ^[16] He along with former Fender employee, George Fullerton, was instrumental in the development of the first modern acoustic bass guitar, introduced under the Earthwood brand in 1972. The acoustic bass guitar (also called ABG or acoustic bass) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string Earthwood is a Brand of Ernie Ball. It is notable for The first modern Acoustic bass guitars A popular Although unsuccessful, surviving models are highly collectable. ^[17] In 1985, the company was moved to a new facility in San Luis Obispo and remained there with all of it operations until early 2003, when the company relocated its string manufacturing to Southern California’s Riverside County. San Luis Obispo (sænˈluːɪs əˈbɪspoʊ Spanish for St Louis the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco Riverside County is a County located in the southeastern part of the U Under his leadership it grossed more than $40 million per annum. ^[18] The company established an annual Battle of the Bands contest and participated in other trade events nationwide. Battle of the Bands is a generic term for a contest in which many bands, usually rock/guitar bands but often from a range of different styles compete for the ^[19]

Personal life

Ball had diverse interests including collecting cars, surfing and flying airplanes. Surfing is a surface water sport in which the participant is carried along the face of a breaking wave, most commonly using a Surfboard, although wave-riders Aviation refers to activities involving man-made flying devices ( Aircraft) including the people organizations and regulatory bodies involved with them Overview Fixed-wing aircraft range from small training and recreational aircraft to Wide-body aircraft and military cargo aircraft. He also authored a series of books and manuals on guitar playing. He was married and had three sons, Sherwood, David, and Sterling Ball, and a daughter, Nova. ^[20]

Death

Ball remained active in his company until his death forty-two years after its founding. He died from an ongoing, undisclosed illness on September 9, 2004, leaving the business to his sons and other family members. Events 1000 - Battle of Svolder, Viking Age. 1379 - Treaty of Neuberg, splitting the Austrian "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " He was buried near his home in San Luis Obispo, California. San Luis Obispo (sænˈluːɪs əˈbɪspoʊ Spanish for St Louis the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco ^[21]

See also

• Michael DeTemple

References

External links

• Ernie Ball/Music Man Company
• Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands
• Guitar Player story Captured 7 April 2007