Products by brand Ernie Ball

Ball started out as a local musician and club and television impresario, building an international business in guitars and accessories that would eventually gross around $40 million a year. 

Around 1958 Ball opened what was arguably the first music store in the United States to sell guitars exclusively, in Tarzana, California.

A few years later, with the guitar-based rock revival of the 1960s, Ball noticed that beginning students were having difficulty playing the best-selling Fender #10 medium gauge strings, particularly when holding down or bending the stiff .028" third ("G") string.

It was then common for a set of strings to have a third string that was "wound". Ernie Ball decided to approach the Fender company with the problem, suggesting a lighter gauge, but was rebuffed. Ball convinced a string manufacturer to make custom strings.

He created sets with a 24-gauge third string that he sold in his store. 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.

Ball also began to notice the practice of "slack strings" among guitarists who discarded the bottom sixth string and added a first banjo string on top. This resulted in an overall lighter gauge ensemble with a single third string. 

He again decided t o contact Fender with a suggestion for a lighter set, but was also turned down. He then approached Gibson, where he was also turned down. So once again he asked the manufacturer and named the product Ernie Ball Slinky. "Slinky" strings traveled the country with the professional musicians who used them, and before long, Ball was taking mail orders from individuals and stores. 

He was not yet a string company, but he made a case of separate strings in various sizes that allowed musicians to experiment with creating their own sets. This got his string business off the ground and in 1967 he sold the store and moved his business to Newport Beach, California.

To this day, Ernie Ball Slinky strings are used by many world-famous guitarists, including Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Angus Young, Keith Richards and Joe Bonamassa.