Born and raised in the affluent suburbs of Santa Monica, California, Ernie Ball was one of a long line of talented musicians in the family. Having grown accustomed to picking at a steel guitar at a young age, he soon began playing at a professional level in bars around the South Central area of his home city. Ernie Ball set-up and operated out of his dedicated guitar and guitar parts store and, after noticing that several ‘beginner’ guitar players were having trouble playing with the common Fender medium gauge strings, set out to develop and supply an alternative.
The result of this endeavour was the introduction of the hugely successful custom gauge ‘Ernie Ball Slinky’ string, earning him praise from skilled guitar players. Ernie recognised his successful journey into the sale of premium guitar strings would pay off further if he developed his own Ernie Ball brand of guitar strings. Today, the Ernie Ball brand of strings for a wide variety of stringed instruments, stands at the top of a long list of manufacturers, and his strings are used by past and present guitar legends; ranging from the likes of CCR’s John Fogerty, U2’s ‘The Edge’ and Steve Vai, Slash, Dream Theatre's John Petrucci, Metallica's James Hetfield to Buddy Guy, Brad Paisley and John Mayer.
