http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/ Ernie Ball, manufacturer of premium guitar and bass strings. Also home of MusicMan, high quality electric guitars and bass guitars. en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:13:18 GMT vBulletin 60 http://cdn.ernieball.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/ http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/21-advertising-marketing-marketising.html Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:51:25 GMT In the old days....(about a decade ago...ok maybe two) a manufacturer did print ads, point of purchase material, artist endorsements and if you were progressive like my father you came out with a t shirt....(1971...the first promotional clothing in our industry) to market their product. There was... In the old days....(about a decade ago...ok maybe two) a manufacturer did print ads, point of purchase material, artist endorsements and if you were progressive like my father you came out with a t shirt....(1971...the first promotional clothing in our industry) to market their product. There was no line or distinction between marketing and advertising. It was all the same. The last ingredient of your 'marketising' was that you left it to your dealer to tell your story.

They got a 100% commission to tell your story. Back then the dealer hadn't had the life beat out of him or really the dealer was usually a player who had to feed the kids and whose wife got tired of the late night gigs. (Remember live music? What a time...but I digress)...what did he or she do? They opened a guitar store. No formal training, no business plan....Out of that crop came a handful of great serial entrepreneurs but really the mortality rate of these stores were massive. What am I getting at? The advent of the category killer and the big box retailers and the dealers basing everything on price..but for a few cases your dealer became the lead blanket they put on your chest when you go to the dentists office. At best you were one can and the consumer was the other can and the dealer was the piece of string. That string broke.

Along came the web. The most amazing conduit and distributor of propaganda, misinformation, and bias. Ying and Jerry Yang. My dads biography in Wikipedia is wrong...I tried to change it and they undid my changes and slapped my virtual wrist. If it's Wiki its true. Wiki used to be a hawaiian dance now it is a large partially fact based resource to guide you. If it was a GPS unit you would rarely get to where you wanted to go.

What happened is that nobody sat back and said "There are 20 million guitars out there and our industry pours 90% of of their 'marketising' money in stupidly expensive print media that has 200,000 subscribers. We ignored the 19,800,000 other owners of the product we were trying to sell. We focused on the already converted Why? It was easy and truly we didn't grasp just how big our market was or could be.

I think I got hit by lightning about 15 years ago because I woke up with a crazy thought....What the hell am I doing? Print was in a sprint race with the consumers attention span. They were both losing. The dealers coffee had gone luke warm and I felt like a amp head without a speaker cabinet.

We hired six young artists from Cal Poly...We bought an RV that was the wildest looking thing ever...you could go anywhere and pull up and hang 18 guitars on the side with headphones for the kids to play. We went everywhere there were kids. We were in an industry that thought BMX, Skateboards and Nintendo were threats and competition. I saw an entire industry determined to fight their demographic. How on this green earth....could you fight your demographic and prosper? We saw opportunity... We bought Volkswagens new Beetle and wrapped them in graphics and gave them to dealers to drive...Nobody wrapped vehicles back then...we put someone in business....we joined the Warped Tour, we started the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, We now have two mobile stages. Along comes Brian Ball and he gets us in this new video game called "Guitar Hero".

Now we weren't the first music company approached by Guitar Hero...we were the first to jump, pounce, and attack the opportunity. Meanwhile we see a sales bump within months. Back at our industry association headquarters they hold a summit to determine whether Guitar Hero is good or bad for our business. They will deny it but our industry wouldn't know a game changing opportunity if it landed in bed next to them. I guess they would have preferred it to be called Tractor Hero. A group of self-important artists started an elite campaign like PETA..."Guitarists against Guitar Hero" I am going to start one against fake fur. I threw up in my mouth a little...Sure its a game but the game was in invitation to experience a similar feeling of playing with a band. Duh?
Its a numbers game. The more you expose the more you can convert. Dealers across the country were refusing to stock the game and were fighting it. (remember we are master at fighting change and opportunity) Some dealers got it and had free Guitar Hero lessons. They sold a ton of guitars and real guitar lessons were overbooked.

It's not just our industry...The greatest story that can be told in the last ten years of American Business is Sony vs Apple. In the red trunks was Sony a super heavy weight...armed with the largest catalog of recorded music, artists signed to slave contracts.....they were a powerhouse in consumer electronics..the cherry on the sundae was that they created the personal music player the Walkman. Remember those? I think it's a phone now. In the Blue trunks is Apple quirky personal computer maker with zero music catalog and a 2.4% market share in the computer business and no history of mainstream consumer products......We know who won but nobody talks about the significance of that victory.

There was a kid that really figured out how to deliver music to kids in a manner that they wanted....basically stealing it via the internet. The Music Industry tried to put Sean Fanning (creator of napster) in jail when they should have hired him...talk about fighting your demographic....they litigated and legislated themselves into a pathetic state of non relevance. They focused on the stealing instead of realizing that there was a consumer that tired of having to buy a whole CD when they only wanted one song? Remember 45's? Singles? Most importantly there was a consumer that wanted a different method of acquisition. Apple got it. Sony and the rest of the biz didn't case closed. War over.

The lesson learned here is to understand that opportunity is still everywhere. Amazon is amazing....how come it wasn't Barnes and Noble? The bigger you get as an organization the more opportunity you create for the next generation to cut your legs off and make you irrelevant. You must stay close to your customers.

I have almost 14,000 posts on our forum....My mantra is that I want to be able to smell my customers breath. Occasionally I get accused of pandering there by some newbie. That is the best one....Im there because I eat sleep and breath our company and its products and programs....I get to hang with other addicts. More on that later...time for more coffee..... ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/21-advertising-marketing-marketising.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/20-defining-moments.html Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:50:38 GMT OK....I'm really happy. Giddy.
The economy sucks. Trying to make something in America that is a little different and costs more...(duh)

The existing business model doesn't work......Can't fixit or get anyone to listen. Everybody wants to use new technology and content but they refuse to think about the real ways to make it work and more global and accessible. Everybody wants to control the inventory.....Thats another blog. My fingers hurt from trying to defend the old school distribution model to passionate people from far away lands....They want the stuff and can get it but they also know that because of where they live they may
have to pay triple. Meanwhile we sell less.

We didn't build a bigger factory. We never built inventory. Big Factories ALWAYS become mangy dogs that you have to feed. Im living in real time and we are down on the guitar side a little but there is no pain because I dont have unwanted inventory and the debt and overhead of a dead factory.

I hired engineers and young smart people instead.

Couldn't sleep...too pumped!

It was the five year anniversary of my Dads passing yesterday. I actually think I know where time goes and no longer fight it. I sort of attack it. I love it. I have no other choice. I learned from my father who didn't understand or accept the natural flow and the role you get to play. The word 'get' is the operative one. I don't burn that time with regret about how I should have done something and Im not running my business on the current mantra of denial.

Speaking of denial.....You dont think that there was some denial in sub-prime lending? Denial in people actually believing that what went up stays up? Economic Viagra failed. America blew it's phantom equity and now the second guessers who were sucking on the hind pacifier are pointing fingers. In the Auto industry why didn't they turn heat down on production? Why didn't they understand R&D? They never played musical chairs in first grade. The music stopped and Ford had a seat. Thats another story.

My Dad taught me things that are intuitive. My Dad taught me that if you couldn't figure out why certain choices were made it was because, 'The world is run by D students" Sage advice.

Enough about Pop's....Why am I excited? Im excited because I have Son's that are pumped and rarin to go. I want to hand them the brushes but hold the easel. I have young engineers that have goose bumps and look like they have to pee all the time because they are so excited about the places they are going and the processes and products they see. The thing I see is that they are in a defining moment and the beauty is that I couldn't see them when I had em....I don't expect them to either but guess what? I do..... and thats one of the fabulous things about getting older.

I never understood that Dudley and I were taking on one of Leo Fenders easels. That blind energy and determination has to be a bigger rush than heroin. As I said in stage 54 of my life I know that I can get cheaper movie tickets around the corner and know what is really happening to these people....that's my heroin.

Leo's long gone. I think that he liked our stuff. Les Paul is gone. Gotta love a guy who gigged into his nineties and still loved being a cat. That time thing has done its thing and know I know that even though remember Im internally 30 I must be one of the last men standing because I keep getting asked for video interviews.

Now if only I could stay awake in movies...... ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/20-defining-moments.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/19-interaction-change.html Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:21:05 GMT Remember I warned you that I'm sort of a slug on the blogging side. I still find it kind of pompous...Hey read me!....

But it is good for me to sit down and try to organize whats banging around in my coconut besides that voices I hear and the hamster running on the rusty wheel! Ok, Im not going to organize...its going to be stream of thought before the first cup of joe.
Technology has become the new crack cocaine that wears a Nehru Jacket...We pridogy'ed, AOL'ed, My Spaced, Facebooked, and now we are Twittering....One has to undersatnd that on the tech side social trends and habits aren't pendilums but really fast metronomes. Big corporations of old media are suckers at a county fair because they make billionaires out of young social engineers that are laughing all the way to the bank on the way to the Gulfstream. They just sold a green banana for 18 billion dollars and the company has never made a dime. They are always late to the party and always pay too much. They end up taking write downs faster than a tax increase and then create spin to justify why they paid 4 billion for Skype or a gazillion for the new and latest and greatest connector of the population that has zero loyalty.
They buy pet rocks. The problem is the higher and bigger you get the harder it is to know what is happening on the ground. Innovation always starts on the ground.

What the hell does this have to do with guitar strings and Music Man? Sort of everything. We sell something that is old world....(if you believe in this era that a product category that was born in around 1948 and didn't gain traction until the early 60's is old world) We use these tools and technology to communicate our message...Tell our story. We also use it to make sure that we are on the ground. It is also a good gut check for me to make sure that it isn't work talking to our customers. The day it's work I'm out of here . Aloha, Baby.

In business today the interaction that we have with our customer is in my mind a huge asset. Critics say that we waste our time. I have a few mantra's and almost first is the I want to get as close to my customer so I can smell their breath. Joined at the hip. Why? Because I still share their passion. Because I get direct feedback on what the diehards are thinking and playing. As a result we have come up with tons of products and not come up with others that if we were in the ivory tower polishing our bitchen button we might have otherwise. The biggest thing to understand is that it isnt a gps that can drop you off at the bank. As I've said on the forum it is cayenne pepper...a little perfects and too much is inedible.

I've had to learn how to react and how the written word can be taken so many different ways. Some use those cheesy emoticons...I wont use them and I still haven't used an ATM. Like everything else in my life I learned on the fly. If I knew then.....

People come and go on the forum. There are long termers that really are friends and nearly family. We know when their cats sick , their dogs lost, and when real tragedy or joy is in their lives. We share in the passing of parents and loved ones and the arrival of the next generation of guitarists. It is just like being in a bar or at a party....there are loud guys, repeaters, sensitive ones and my least favorite..PSV's Personal Space Violators. These are some fo my categories for drinkers too. When I run into a forumite and know their guitar or their kids name the are shocked. It's called credibility.

Those kids of today call it 'street cred'. In my day it was walking the walk. It's funny to see big companies try to buy credibility. The kids will take their offers and laugh behind their backs. These companies are marketing to generations that got target marketed starting with their baby formula. They have the highest level of skepticism and the most efficient BS meter. They also have the shortest attention span in the world...if you can't grab them in the five seconds you get you are toast and you are better off burning thousand dollar bills naked in a lotus postion. Teachers and Doctors all it ADD and medicate. I think it is a immunity from oversaturation.

In the old days you used a dealer and the print media to tell your story to the public. It worked pretty good. You used international business to bury your mistakes. If a product went cold you pull the wool over the eyes of the europeans for at least a year....You know that there are still companies that dont understand that the word is on real time?

I decided print was dead about 8 years ago. I backed off and spent the dough telling our story directly. The dealer and magazines that were once conduits became the lead blanket the dentist puts on your chest for xrays.

So we use technology to tell our story. We use it to show the public the future of our company and the things we hold sacred. We use it to allow musicians the opportunity to post their music and videos. We use You Tube to tell you how to fix or operate things...or show you the latest video of an artist of ours. We use technology to provide the logistics for our two mobile stages that travel the country giving thousands of bands an opportunity to play live. We really use technology to change and evolve.

Ill end with the word change....Change is the only creator of opportunity both good and bad. Nothing ever happens when you do nothing. Imagine that? The problem with change is that the bigger you get the slower you change and that is the beauty of the system. The process of success breeds detachment and indifference to the customer and product you are selling. That's what creates opportunity for the smaller hungrier band or company. We are only here because My Dad really believed that people wanted choice over their strings and Leo Fender and the Gibson guys didn't. They weren't on the ground....my Dad was and I never forget it. ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/19-interaction-change.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/18-25-years-wow.html Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:20:45 GMT Ok so here we are at 2009 and it's the the 25th Anniversary of Ernie Ball and Music Man.
I guess in relationships Anniversaries can be pressure or for someone else. In business it really gives you an opportunity to step back and pat yourself on the back, kick yourself in the shins, second guess yourself, and then give yourself carpel tunnel from patting your self on the back again just because you are still here.....Kind of like being in a marathon. Only you dont have to run.

Things just happened. I was curious and persistant.I met Dudley Gimpel. We had Dan Norton. I was a kid who only wanted to do what my Dad did. I gigged back when you actually could play live music and play loud stupid never ending jams. I bought and sold stuff for gas and beer money. Back then you could buy a Danelectro for about 15 bucks and if you knew where to go that was good for at least 25 bucks. Vintage Fenders were cheap and fun to trade.

I got to go hang with Leo and Tommy. I loved Tommy Walker. He taught me so much. I was really curious about his new company and really loved being able to help in the ways I could. I didn't think that it was really bizarre to go to CLF and work with Leo on the Stingray prototypes..or the Sabre. When ego got in the way and all the bad stuff with the original Music Man happened...I thought "Hey Dad, Lets buy it and make cool instruments"

I remember being at the auction with my Dad and Dan Norton. We bought the Trademarks and some inventory of the last Music Man amps and some tooling. Now what do we do?
First thing is that the amp tooling was no good as I had decided that we couldn't really make amps after looking at the margins and hassles. The second thing is that I shrink wrapped and palletized the last amps and pushed them in a corner. They are sill on the pallets just different
corners.

What was I thinking back then? Why did I think that we could take something Leo Fender started and make a go of it. Didnt I know that I was putting a mole on the Mona Lisa? I had ever designed a guitar. I had disassembled,played, or sold just about every guitar made....

Oh yeah Im back rambling about the past.....let me tell you that getting ready to decide what the 25th Anniversary models would be. I walked through the factory and the back building and had the most rewarding quiet time. I thought about 25 years. Not all of my kids were born yet.
Tommy and Leo and my Dad were still alive. Lets see we had a Reagan, Two Bushes, a Clinton and an Obama. I realized in my little private time just how many passionate makers had tried to make it and had to give up their dream. I realized what rare company we were in to still be here making guitars in America. Then I thought again about Leo and realized that we have made guitars longer than he did. NOWHERE NEAR THE SIGNIFIGANCE OR IMPACT (I had to add that so people understood that I dont consider anything we may have done to be in the same ballpark as Leo)..but it kind of puts this in perspective since the electric guitar has only been around since the late forties that 25 years of continued production in America really is something worthy of commemorating and celebrating.

I think that Anniversary models should recognize your past present and future. Some companies celebrate by re-issuing something old. Thats fine....but not what I think they should be.

Check out our new 25th Anniversary models....Playing and hearing them with the chambering of he guitar body along with the tone block is resonance and tonal nirvana....Check out the active/passive ffeatures on the bass and the tone block.... ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/18-25-years-wow.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/chewie/17-visual-voicemail-blackberries.html Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:43:42 GMT Last night I discovered a service called YouMail
http://www.youmail.com

I don't know if the new Bold's or Storm's have visual voicemail or not, so this might not apply to those. Those of you with iPhones have definitely been privileged.

In conjuction with a third party app you can manage your YouMail vmail without the need of the browser on a blackberry.

The app is called VyMail.
It will show who the voicemail is from, how long, play it, and delete it without having to call in.
VyMail can be download from:
http://www.joekrill.com/vymail/

There is an OTA install for that available too. Point your phones browser too http://www.joekrill.com/vymail/ota/

I just followed the instructions on YouMail to set up my Blackberry Pearl 8100. Basically all it does is change the phone number missed calls get forwarded to and changes the number your cell phone dials when you use your phones voicemail button. This means you're voicemail is now own the YouMail system and not as in my case AT&T's system.

Even if you don't install VyMail you can still manage your voicemail from your blackberry by pointing the browser to http://m.youmail.com

You can even have custom voicemail greeting messages for callers.
You do need to upload a copy of your phone's contacts to YouMail if you want to be able to do this. Right now my phone recognizes my callers by first name and tells them I'm unavailable.

You could though add a custom message to crazy ex-girlfriends. There are tons of pre-recorded greeting messages. Many make it so the persson calling you thinks there is a problem with their phone. You can even have it hang up after it plays the message.

Or you can just mess with your friends using this service too.

Update: 03/12/09

http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/...gle-voice.html

Looks like Grand Central is now Google Voice and has all the old Grand Central features I've grown to love and now has the YouMail features like custom answers and visual voicemail

Enjoy

Update: 03/24/09

I just checked back at youmail.com and saw they have an app now for blackberries. Now visual voicemail on blackberry is almost identical in function as visual voicemail on an iphone.

go to http://m.youmail.com/ota on your blackberry to install it. ]]> Chewie http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/chewie/17-visual-voicemail-blackberries.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/15-i-guess-i-have-talk-about-eddie-van-halen.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:04:19 GMT This is a edited message that I responded to on our forum about the old 5150 guitar strings. It is an example of you never know when you take a little creative initiative where it can take you. 5150 strings are what put EVH and I together…. For years the legend was that he only used Fender... This is a edited message that I responded to on our forum about the old 5150 guitar strings.

It is an example of you never know when you take a little creative initiative where it can take you.

5150 strings are what put EVH and I together….

For years the legend was that he only used Fender strings that had been boiled. We had dealings with Rudy Leiren EVH’s high school buddy/longtime tech on other stuff but they kind of kept a lot of the mystery of EVH’S sound. A lot of the stuff was just playing with people like David Lee Roth Paternity insurance, no brown m&m’s and stuff…..

So a Guitar World Magazine cover around 1989 or 90 had EVH standing in the hovel known as 5150 Studios…He had just named the studios that and had fell in love with the whole 5150 idea.
Scattered on the ground at his feet were some real acme string envelopes…..I thought, hmmmmm another myth debunked….If he has those dogs we can kill it for him. The challenge is how do I get his attention?

So I sneak in the art department when my dad was at lunch (back then that was his turf)…….I took stencil and made red labels with a very funky black stencil with 5150 in big letters and guitar strings in small…… I went to the factory and scraped up some old pure nickel and had the guys make them in Eddie’s gauge…I sent them to Rudy who showed then to Eddie and the very next day the phone rings and its EVH.

He said ” I just got these strings and they are hysterical and great strings too…thanks man….” I said “Do you want to know what would be more hysterical?” He bit on the bait and I said ” How about if you could make a bunch of money and have your own brand of guitar strings at the same time” He was all over it and said when can we get together?

My dad was a pilot and had a single engine Bonanza…he and I flew to LA and picked up EVH, Rudy (who was not small) Engineer Donn Landee and another guy and we flew to the factory in SLO. I remember taking off at Van Nuys and a loud buzzer went off and I thought for sure it was weight related (Dont crash Dad!) but we made it fine.

When we got to the factory I gave them a tour and Eddie got to drive some of my Dad’s cars. It was time to talk business. I had passed the groups test. I said one thing. ” I understand that you have a relationship with Kramer (secret ownership) It’s been great meeting with you but I am not in the business of designing products for competitors….Are you sure that you can do this?” He said ” I wouldn’t Bleepin be here if I couldn’t”. He liked my royalty deal and it was to the races, or so I thought.

A few weeks later my good friends at DAddario (this business is actually quite friendly) called me and said “Kramer just sent this string package to us to duplicate and it looks like something you were involved with….whats the deal?”

I called Eddie and said, “WTF….You gave me your word”…..He said “I dont know anything about it”
I said that I anticipated this and had registered as a trademark 5150 for guitar strings in between the time of sending him the strings and his visit and that if there were going to be 5150 strings I would be involved. He said “I own 5150!” I said “Not for guitar strings” He said “Are you trying to rip me off?” I said “No, I won’t come out with them if you aren’t involved but you can’t come out with them if I’m not involved” I told him I would give him the trademark in exchange for a 20 year license. The attorneys said money had to change hands so I sold it to him for $20.00 but actually as a joke I told him I would only accept a bowling ball….True story I sold the 5150 trademark for a bowling ball. (Oh yeah and a 20 year license that I gave back when we separated….something I didn’t have to do, btw Karma is a good thing.)

It turns out Kramer was trying to mess with me. Eddie had no idea that they had done what they did. They sent me a letter saying that they had to be involved with EVH as he was a silent owner and was contractually obligated to include them in any products in the music business. (The original 5150 strings were Kramer by Ernie Ball on the back of the label) So I made a a deal where I would sell the strings to Kramer and they would pay EVH the agreed upon royalty. A couple of years went by and EVH’s in my opinion over her head junior accountant turned business manager called and said “You have never paid us royalties, I want an accounting immediately or I will issue a cease and desist order. I said “Wait a minute…Kramer is my customer I have paid them promptly and have zero obligation to provide you with an accounting. If you haven’t been getting royalties talk to Kramer.” She asked for the accounting again and I repeated that I didn’t have to but added, “If you ask Kramer for an audit and send me proof then I will give you an audit”

Lets just say that was the end of EVH and Kramer. Our accounting was perfect and without casting any aspersions or allegations there allegedly a disconnect between the recieving and paying of royalties on Kramers part to EVH. EVH went red assed mad and severed the relationship with Kramer.

The in my opinion over the head business manager (Who later got hers…thank god.) was now in the position of finding a new guitar company for EVH. There wasn’t anything that jumped out at them. I said “How about if I make a guitar in the interim?” We dont make enough to satisfy the demand but I can promise a great guitar, and we can make him anything he needs. We quickly designed and built a guitar that Im very proud of. Eddie made great music and some decent royalties. We made whatever he needed from double necks to baritones.

The rest is history and most of the ending history is full of rumor and falsehoods and hurtful internet gossip. The relationship was a time bomb from a personal and business relationship. EVH had some well publicized issues and there was never any way where it could make the business people happy. We just weren’t big enough, and EVH and I hit the wall.

The less said the better. It was ugly and didn’t have to be. We weren’t the only company that had the privelidge of working with EVH. We weren’t the only company that parted ways in a difficult manner. I take it as a backhanded compliment that there is more interest in our era than the others. Maybe thats who some of the BS is out there.

I enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the creative process and be an integral part in a very important period of a gifted musician.

But like most things with my family it started with a little creativity, integrity, and a guitar string. ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/15-i-guess-i-have-talk-about-eddie-van-halen.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/14-ok-so-i-m-slug-blogging-where-i.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:37:08 GMT I was twenty two……but I want to be 17 again. It’s a blog….I get to. I want to talk about Albert Lee. The Ball Family was always surrounded by music;. Family get togethers were everyone playing or singing something. If we weren’t doing that we were listening. Everything from Western Swing to... I was twenty two……but I want to be 17 again. It’s a blog….I get to. I want to talk about Albert Lee.

The Ball Family was always surrounded by music;. Family get togethers were everyone playing or singing something. If we weren’t doing that we were listening. Everything from Western Swing to Summer of Love Rock and all in between From Bob Wills through Lenny Breau all the way to Cream and beyond. We were always the ones that baffled record store clerks…..(That is like talking about the ice delivery man) with the varied stack.

One day my Dad came home and got all of the three Ball boys and said “You have to s listen to this guitar player, He is unbelievable”..”Yeah Dad”…..So he hands me this green double album from a English band named Heads Hands and Feet. He plays the first track and it is a really wild up tempo country song called Country Boy with just mind blowing stop break fills and solos. We wore it out. We could not believe this guitarist was English and played rippin’ country. That’s how I discovered Albert Lee.

So we couldn’t wait to see him live. They had to be touring. We checked the paper and low and behold Heads Hands and Feet were opening for Jethro Tull at the Los Angeles Forum. Martin Barre of Jethro Tull used our stuff so we were in with tickets. My Dad Took the three boys and we couldnt believe that Albert was playing a black SG and playing to a disinterested crowd. HH&F were a rock band but their last song was Country Boy. The crowd could have cared less…they wanted AquaLung….We didn’t get to meet Albert that night but saw the next night that he was playing the Whisky A Go Go…I had to see him again so I dragged a coupla buds and we went to the Whisky. The Whisky is a legendary club that was back then a wild scene and not a pay to play dump that I think it is today. It was really small and fun. I was sitting next to a girl that wearing a big black coat and when she took it off she was wearing an Ernie Ball T Shirt….I started talking to her and she said she was with the Guitar Player from Heads Hands and Feet…I told her that was wild as we were there to see him and that my Dad was Ernie Ball. She said Albert gave her the shirt somewhere. After the show she took us back to meet Albert.

He was as excited to meet me as I was to meet him. we talked guitars and I asked about the SG and he said that a friend was a roadie for Pete Townsend and that this was a guitar that Pete had smashed and that he pal rebuilt it and gave it to Albert as Al didn’t have a good guitar. The only problem is that he couldnt put any pressure on the guitar as the thing was glued together and it would go wildly out of tune.

I asked him how many more days he was in LA and if he would like to come to Newport Beach and see the factory and meet my Dad. He jumped on the invitation and drove down the next day. I couldn’t believe it. He stayed the evening for dinner with the whole family and we all played and sang. It was like he was in the family.

So the tour ends and he goes back to England. He gets a call for a session in LA and needs a place to stay so he writes me and asks if he can crash at my moms house, (My parents were newly divorced then) I said sure…He said just for a couple of nights..he stayed a month. We jammed and had a blast. I couldn’t play Country Boy back then as I would listen to his playing and lose my time….He ended up playing with my Band for my High School Winter dance….He played Wurlitzer electric piano most of the night. What was he doing at 28 playing with a 17 year olds high school band? He loved playing, still does. There are countless stories of him sitting in lobby bars or tiny pubs or playing so and so’s party.

One of the great things we did back then was drive to the northern border of the San Fernando Valley and go to a place called the Sundance Saloon. They had a Tuesday night Jam hosted by Don Everly. The band was Buddy Emmons, Byron Berline, and just about every legend at the time even Glen Campbell..everyone. I wasnt old enough but sometimes I would sit out front and sometimes they would let me in. I remember sitting outside one night and the kid next to me was a guitar from Oklahoma named Vince….Vince Gill.

At the time Albert was becoming one of my best friends but he was playing a Tele and Fender strings. He wouldn’t use ours at first but familial pressure won out and he has for over thirty years. I started workng with Leo and Tommy and told them about Albert. I told Albert that if he played his cards right I could take him to Leo’s secret lab where he was starting a new line and he could meet Leo. Albert fell in love with Tommy’s amp and was like a little kid meeting Leo. Leo was a country guy at heart and loved Albert’s playing. Albert still uses Music Man amps wherever possible.

When we bought Music Man Albert was a died in the wool Tele guy and he was watching with a lot of support what Dudley and I were doing. I think he was being a nice and supportive friend at first by giving the Silhouette a go occasionally and using it for a few tunes during a gig. He started to really like it because of the weight and balance and tone.

I finally figured out how to play Country Boy and Albert and I started doing some local gigs. I played bass but really wanted to get better at guitar so I started this band Biff Baby’s Allstars so I could be the guitar player…..I got my junior high and high school buddy John Ferraro who was with Larry Carlton straight out of High School and he got this amazing keyboard player named Jimmy Cox and I asked Freebo who was with Bonnie Raitt and we got a gig in a club called Sid’s Blue Beat in Newport Beach in June of 1984. My guitar playing lasted less than that gig because Albert said “you are doing a gig and you didnt ask me? I became the rhythm guitarist and played bass on the country stuff. My brother Sherwood sang.

We went on to do a bunch of the hot clubs like the Palomino Club in LA and the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. We were this really wild bar band that played everything from Sam Cooke to Jerry Lee Lewis. It was just the best time of my musical life. We went on to tour Europe, Japan and Australia (Most of those with Steve Morse too)…some twice. We used to also do double drummer gigs with Chad Whackerman from Zappa and Holdsworth. Even in the EVH days Eddie was an Allstar and we played a New Years gig with Albert, Luke, and Eddie Van Halen and the Malibu Inn….We would be hanging out and say lets do a gig tomorrow and call the Palomino or the Belly Up down in Solana Beach and say….”Pay the band that you have booked and tell them to come party with us we want to play.” Some of those gigs were pre You Tube priceless. The Allstars. Jay Graydon and Dweezil would sit in on the Palomino gigs. The All Stars still to this day play but usually for Casey Lee Ball Benefits or someone in the bands wedding, divorce or funeral. We can’t get hired anymore.

In the middle of 1986 I went to lunch with Dudley and said “lets design something whacky…I mean Jetson’s whacky ….50’s retro space age…but make it balance like a strat. Back then before computer drafting and design you actually had to draw it. He went to work and I loved the thing on paper. Dudley finished it in time for he Ernie Ball company Christmas party wher Albert and The Allstars were playing. I was so excited I showed it to Albert…..”Look what Dudley made for me!” Albert said “Oh Dear or Goodness me” and fell in love with it and I gave it to him on the spot. I owned it for 10 seconds. Dudley didn’t mind and Albert now played one of our guitars but it was called the Axis and it didn’t get put into production until 1993 as the Albert Lee model.

All of our artists are done with a handshake and no contracts. My third son is Casey Lee Ball and the Lee is after Albert. Funny enough I am Godfather to all of Albert’s Kids. I am also Godfather to Lukes new daughter Lilly Rose and Steve Morse’s son Kevin who is a teenage shredder. I was best man for Steve Morse, Luke and Albert. Not bragging just explaining that our relationships are way beyond normal and the friendship comes first.

I still consider Albert Lee to be my favorite guitar player. I love and adore the others but Albert is special to me. They all know it. Albert spends much of his time now in England and I don’t get to see him very much but we are in touch a bunch. I wanted to dedicate this posting to a great player and a better man. My friend Albert Lee. ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/14-ok-so-i-m-slug-blogging-where-i.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/chewie/13-how-use-rss-feedburner-promote-your-wordpress-blog.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:16:22 GMT phatduckk turned me on to feedburner, so he deserves some of the credit here.

Anyway if you don't know what RSS is stands for Really Simple Sindication. What does that mean? I don't think I'm the one to try to translate that in to layman terms. It is really cool and handy.

Feedburner takes an RSS feed and helps promote it to a wider audience, basically giving some free exposure. One of the nicer features of the Feedburner feed in addition to using their bandwidth to syndicate your feed is that you can now track people who are subscribed to your feed.

So lets start with a couple screenshots of the entire process.

1. Head to the main page of your wordpress blog. In this case well feedburn Sterling's blog on the mm site as an example. Notice the RSS symbol in the Firefox Toolbar circled in red below.



2. Click on the RSS symbol and the following page will show up. Notice the address in the Address Bar. Copy that to the clipboard.



3. Now head on over to the Feedburner homepage and enter in the url you copied from the previous step and hit the next button as illustrated below.



4. Feedburner will automatically fill in the next page itself, but you'll have to log in or create a new account when you get to this step. I'm not going to explain how to do that as it is fairly self explanatory.





5. Once you have clicked on Activate you can skip any optional steps feedburner prompts for and complete the process. Take note of your newly created feedburner RSS feed address and keep it handy for later. Once completed the screen should look something like the following:



6. At this point you need to download the Feedsmith plugin for Wordpress. At time of this posting the latest version can be found at http://www.feedburner.com/fb/product...plugin_2.3.zip. Once downloaded, extract the zip file and upload the file plugin file to the wp-content/plugin directory on your webserver. I'm on Solaris so I used gFTP, but on windows, Filezilla should do the trick. Mac i think you should be able use Fetch. Anyway it should look something similar to below.



7. Login to your wordpress admin and click on the Plugins tab. Click on Activate for the Feedburner Feedsmith plugin.



8. Once done it should look like the following:



9. Now click on Settings and enter in your newly created Feedburner RSS feed and hit save.



10. At this point your done. Verify by returning to the main page of your blog and click on the RSS feed again. It should now list the feedburner RSS feed and not your original wordpress RSS feed.



That's about it. I'm sure I forgot something but I think this should be enough to get you going.

Here's an example of some usage of RSS feeds. I'm a big fan of iGoogle. My Firefox homepage is set to iGoogle and it has the RSS feeds from several sites I follow for easy reading. There are several other ways to take advantage of RSS feeds. My other favorite ones are Google Reader and Thunderbird. Here is an example screenshot of iGoogle with a subscription to Sterling's Blog shown.

]]> Chewie http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/chewie/13-how-use-rss-feedburner-promote-your-wordpress-blog.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/chewie/11-firebug-yslow-yslow-vbulletin-plug-faster-forums.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:31:50 GMT I recently discovered a addon for vbulletin that should speed things up a bit. YSLOW 1.0.3 (Make Your Forum Faster) - vBulletin.org Forum (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=178286) To see what the plug-in does exactly one needs two firefox extensions. Firebug... I recently discovered a addon for vbulletin that should speed things up a bit.
YSLOW 1.0.3 (Make Your Forum Faster) - vBulletin.org Forum

To see what the plug-in does exactly one needs two firefox extensions.

Firebug has been a handy Firefox extension for web developers for some time now.

Just discovered YSlow which is addon for the Firebug extension.

YSlow lists performance issues that can plague a website and pages and gives advice on how to correct them.

The YSlow addon for vbulletin just makes it easier for you to address those issues on a vbulletin forum.

It's not really limited to vbulletin. It can actually be used on any Apache/PHP based server. ]]> Chewie http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/chewie/11-firebug-yslow-yslow-vbulletin-plug-faster-forums.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/10-ive-been-everywhere-man.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:11:32 GMT Ok, where was I? Tokyo, Fort Worth, San Luis Obispo and back to the California Desert. Oh, Yeah history... The great thing about those times is that the lines were blurred. I was helping Leo, beta-testing amps for Tommy, getting them artists. I remember Tommy askng my Dad if he could hire me.... Ok, where was I? Tokyo, Fort Worth, San Luis Obispo and back to the California Desert. Oh, Yeah history...

The great thing about those times is that the lines were blurred. I was helping Leo, beta-testing amps for Tommy, getting them artists. I remember Tommy askng my Dad if he could hire me. My Dad said it was my choice. Talk about conflicted. I could be on the ground floor with my godfather and Leo Fender or I could stay in the family business. I chose Ernie Ball. I really didn't have a choice as I have mentioned it is what I felt preordained to do.

One of my favorite artist stories was Eric Clapton. When you deal with artists many times your relationship with the Roadies, (or Tech's as they now are called because everybody needs a more interestng title these days) is much more important than the relationship with the artist. Especially when the artist is high proile. Many of those artists rely solely on the Roadie to keep them current and trust their recommendations to this day. Actually these days it is the rule. Access to a star is about zero and going to a show is really nothing like the old days. There are some great exceptions today primarily Slash, who is a great member of he Ernie Ball Family. Remind me to tell you of Paul Mc Cartney....fantastic gentleman.

So Eric had some issues back then and sort of reemerged ad ended up in with a bunch of players from Tulsa. He had a great and wonderful Roadie named Willie Spears who used to work for Leon Russell. Willie was just a fantastic down home guy that really cared and was really fun to be around. Eric had just finished 461 Ocean Blvd that the Tulsa guys and him recored in Miami...you know the one with the Bob Marley cover of "I Shot the Sherriff".

Willie called to place his string order to prepare for Eric's first tour in awhile and we were chewing the fat and I asked him what he was doing for amps and he said that Eric was using Fender Dual Showman's but was looking for something more powerful and something with a master volume. I said that there was this new company that my godfather started with some old Fender veterans ( Icouldnt mention Leo as his non compete clause was still in effect with CBS) and they had these new amps that were really good sounding and built lke a tank. He was curious and asked if I could bring some to the Long Beach Auditorium to sound check for Eric to check out. This would not happen today. I said sure then called Tommy and first off had to tell him who Eric Clapton was and convince hnim that it was worth bringing amps to Long Beach. I told Tommy to trust me that if Eric used the amps that he would be set.

We loaded up Tommy's 67 Cadillac Sedan De Ville with two heads and two cabinets and barle fit in to drive there. Willie meets us at the loading dock and Im sure is scratching his head. Heere is this skinny kid along with a grandfatherly guy in his overloaded Caddy and golf clothes with these amps. We set them up and I played a little and so did Willie and he was sufficiently impressed to bring Eric out. Eric was knocked out and wouldn't give those prototypes back. Tommy asked if he could have a photo for endorsement purposes and Eric said as long as he got the amps. That was the first endorsement ad for Music Man.....It was Eric standing in front of the amps with a Gibson Explorer with the title "There is only one Music Man". Tommy trusted me and ran with it and it really jumped started the amps. Eric used Music Man amps for many years. The ad ran internationally and the amps were off to the races.

Now Tommy is building a team that included so many Fender veterans one being this blond German lady named Uschi Eastman who was a really great International sales manager. To most of the smaller US companies we didnt understand export. Tommy asked me if we needed any international help. I went my boss at Ernie Ball and asked him if he wanted Uschi's help and he said that we were covered and that all you needed was Japan, Germany, France, and England. (Kind of like Spinal Tap when the manager said "Boston isnt a college town")

I thought about what to do and decided that I would go ahead and ask Uschi for a list of names in various countries and send out a mailing to those people and see what came of it. I actually believed the world was biger than 5 countries. So I took the list and after hours sent the stealth mailing out. Twenty two countries responded with orders. That was the straw that broke the camels back with the Sales Manager. Besides being hyper, loud, and uncontrollable I had shown him up for the last time and he quit. I remember the next company boasting that they got the brains of Ernie Ball.

Now I'm 22 and my Dad sits me down and says, "Sterling, you act like you have all the answers. You can have the Sales Manager job..you have one year. If you grow the business you have a job. If you don't your done" I did pretty well and the first year the business with 14 employees was up 50% and I had a job. ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/10-ive-been-everywhere-man.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/9-semi-retirement-huh.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:08:29 GMT So he has moved the family kicking and screaming to Newport Beach in 1967. I look back on the kickng and screaming part....lets see Newport Beach...Boats, beaches and babes...The San Fernando Valley... We are settling in and things are going well. My Dad is Salesman/Graphic Artist/Product... So he has moved the family kicking and screaming to Newport Beach in 1967. I look back on the kickng and screaming part....lets see Newport Beach...Boats, beaches and babes...The San Fernando Valley...

We are settling in and things are going well. My Dad is Salesman/Graphic Artist/Product Designer/Back up shipper /and chief bottle washer. The kids are still showing up after work to stuff labels into strings and I got the pleasure of filing invoices. Back then there were just two other employees, Marie Farley the pick printing lady and a guy who I wont mention his name as he started as a 12 year old student and worked for my dad and handled all the shipping into his adulthood.

My Dad decided to get a local accountant and the first thing the guy wanted to see was the check register and cancelled checks. The unnamed employee became very nervous and was reluctant to turn over the checks and registers. He kept telling my dad that the accountant was just trying to boost his billings and that the employee was handling it fine. My Dad forced the guy to turn over the stuff and the accountant calls my Dad and says, "Someone has forged a bunch of checks and the total is about $27,500." My Dad confronted the guy and he broke down into tears and admitted that at first he was just advancing himself money but it got out of hand. My father prosecuted and also went after Bank of America because the forgeries were so bad. That happened in 1969.

The other thing he did was another example that he taught me about trying to make a good result out of a bad experience. He sat back and said "If someone can steal $27,500.00 and I dont notice it, then there is some real potential here." It was a wake up call to run his business properly and pay a little more attention and see where it could go. Off it went and those were exciting times. When you are very small incremental growth was exciting. We added a sales guy and a Sales Manager.

I had decided that I needed work experience outside of my Dad. I went to work at a little guitar store called Island Guitars on Balboa Island. Wow, what a crash course in entrepenourship......My boss was a character who fought with his wife in the store, lie to the creditors, flirt with the customers and play in the restaurant down the block at night. My favorite was when a housewife would try to grind on him for a discount...he would start by scratching his head really hard and putting his shoulders back with his pot belly sticking out...if they kept grinding he would go his failsafe closing move.....He would scratch his 'privates'. THe housewife would just say I'll take it and rush out of the store. I was managing the store at 16 and having a blast. I would restring guitars when time alloted and do all the little things we did in the Tarzana days. I was playing in bands, managing the little store and buying and selling stuff on the side as none of the Ball kids got allowances in rich Newport. I didnt care because I liked buying a Danelectro for 15 dollars and selling it for 30.

In my travels scouring things to buy and sell I used to drop into this quirky hippy amp company called Quilter Sound Company. It was run by a genius named Pat Quilter and his right hand man Barry Andrews. I got Crump's son to run the woodshop and I sort of ran the retail part. There was basically no retail but what a blast. I remember that one day they were about 6 weeks behind in paying me and Barry was sick of my act and I was sick of his and I quit probably before Barry could fire me. I got a amp head and two cabinets for back pay. Barry went on to hire his brother who had just graduated from business school and they had this crazy idea to just make power amps. It was wildly sucessful and they are now known as QSC. They are all really nice and good people who deserve their success.

It's now early 73 and I decide that I will try to get a job with Ernie Ball. I dont ask my Dad, I go to the sales manager and tell him that I wanted to be a road rep for Southern California. He didnt want me in anyway shape or form. I said "Give me a month, a gas card and that old Chevy out in the parkng lot that was unused, pay me only on what I sell and if it isnt worth it, then fire me." "Oh, yeah and lets keep this between us"

I sold a lot of strings and stuff that month. So much that I had a job. My Father didn't find out until about 6 weeks into it he wanted to know where the Chevy was. I was rolling....calling on the sole Guitar Center in a Santa Suit at Christmas and hitting record stores in between my appointments. Great times and then the first gas crisis hit and we couldnt get any gas. I was asked to temporarily come inside and work the telemarketing. I never went back out.

Its now 75 and my Godfather and other mentor Tommy Walker had started Music Man with Leo Fender and Forrest White. Leo Fender had sold his company in 1965 to CBS because he thought he was gravely ill. CBS bought a very happening and profitable company and couldnt believe it when the real corp guys got in there. There were no MBA'a and the guy who ran the production was Forrest with no degree and they forced him out with a manufacturing expert that came from Waste King garbage disposals. They looked at the sales staff and all of them made more than the president of the United States. They forced them out one by one. Music Man was a collection of talented and skilled castoffs or people who just couldnt take CBS.

I got invited to the lab to see what they were up to. They handed my this bass log that had this big pickup and three knobs. We plugged it in and I couldnt believe it. It was like watching High Definition television for the first time. I made some suggestions that I didnt know any better than to realize that I was offering advice to Leo Fender. Leo liked it and I signed on as a beta tester and lab rat after work at Ernie Ball on the phones.........

Part whatever coming again soon! ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/9-semi-retirement-huh.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/8-story-goes.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:05:22 GMT So know it's 1962 and my Dad's store is just down the block from the house and we were all out terrorizing the neighbors and my dad shows up and wants the kids to choose the packages for the new strings....I remember this vividly, ( Kind of weird because I was seven) and he stuck his right hand out and showed us this wacky string package that was in black and white....then he pulled his left hand out and there was a hot pink day glo version of the same artwork.....It was unanimous the day glo won......He called them Slinky's.

The artwork was done by a genius high school buddy that was one of Walt Disneys top art directors named Roland Fargo Crump. If you get to Disneyland and see "It's a Small World"( you will notice an uncanny resemblance as that was Crump's work too......)

So now he has a name and package for the strings now it's time to sell them. Easy,......right? My Dad didn't know anything about business. He was a instant serial entrepreneur.....he had to break all the rules he didn't know and figure out how to get dealers excited about guitar strings when at the time they were kept in drawers and an after thought for the stores. Today accessories are one of the most important segment of any retailers business but back then ignored. The first thing he learned is that he was a dealer in the LA area and no store would consider buying a string with a competing stores name on the package. The second thing is that NOBODY cared. I went on sales calls with him as a kid and I sat on the curb and waited while he was rejected 9 out of ten times....

So my Dad did what all people with passion for an idea that everyone thinks is crazy. He tried different stuff. He first off made sure that there was extra profit for the dealer to sell the stuff and broke conventional discount structure. He then said that if they didn't like his name on the package that he would put their name on it. Bingo. You could tell the four Ball kids by looking at their hands as they were the ones with the paper cuts and hangnails from stuffing the front label into the sets for the dealers. They started to build momentum as did Rock N Roll....Dealers started realizing that they were making money and that it was cool having heir name on the set. He appealed to their ego.

It's starting to build and my dad would get letters from guys wanting the strings. He stared doing mail orders. Back then there weren't roadies and bands like the Beach Boys would be lugging their gear and people would ask them where they got those flexible strings and they said, This crazy guy in California named Ernie Ball....more mail orders.

So as it grew he started putting his original front label in the sets as a back label and dealers didn't mind as they were selling and generating profit from a new area of the store. As the momentum grew he switched the labels and put his in the front and the dealers in the back. Double hangnails for us kids...that was if we didnt get library duty going through the yellow pages looking for new dealers to contact. If they looked like a really big dealer we would rip the page out and my dad would do artwork from the ads logo and sent the dealer some spec strings. It worked about 90% of the time.

This is when I knew that all I ever wanted to do was Ernie Ball. By 9 I was running the stores cash register when I wasn't driving my dad nuts. What an era.....The Byrds hung out in the store and so did most of the bands and if you bought a set of strings at the now thriving store we would put them on tweak the guitar's set up for free. Any number of us kids and store guys would get the workbench and polish and re string.

Oh yeah and while he was doing this string thing he was also introducing colored guitar picks as the conventional wisdom was that you only could sell tortise shell colored ones. He was teaching like mad. When you took from Ernie Ball and his staff of teachers you always had the top 30 arranged for easy, moderate, and advanced students. It was so unique that my Dad had a Xerox machine when they first came out (pre trademark concern days) and Xerox was so impressed that they did an international ad campaign...print and TV. BIg Time. "IF Ernie Ball's guitar store can afford a Xerox 813 how expensive can it be?" "About the cost of a dozen guitar picks", said Ernie.

He was arranging music for Hansen Publications gutiar folios. I remember when the Hansen guys called my Dad and said, "Ernie, we have a book that you have to do really quickly as these guys are a fad and won't last'....it was the Beatles. Sometimes on Ebay you can find my Dad's arrangements. His Classical Gas one was a big seller.

Now the Store is rockin, the strings are growing and Dads still teaching. We are cruising along waiting for KRLA or KHJ to debut the newest Beatles songs so we could play them before the record came out. The thrice broke Ernie Ball is now a growing success. It's 1967 and three things happened. The British Invasion hit, Guitar Player Magazine started, ( By fellow teacher and San Fernando Valley retailer/teacher/steel guitarist named Bud Eastman.....who also founded Musicians Friend) and my Dad decided at 37 to sell his stores, ( he had three by then) move to Newport Beach and semi-retire and concentrate on the accessory business. He wanted to surf at lunch and learn to fly an airplane. He did both but this semi-retirement was a failure as the magazine and the British Invasion messed up that concept as the business took off........

Part four coming when I get around to it.....Hope Im not boring you cats. ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/8-story-goes.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/7-history-part-two.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:00:28 GMT So now we know that Sherwood became Ernie. From there my dad got married to a singer from Oklahoma. They had a son Sherwood and then the Korean war broke out. My grandpa had a pal at the draft board who told him that Ernie was pretty much next. My grandpa had another pal in the union who told him... So now we know that Sherwood became Ernie. From there my dad got married to a singer from Oklahoma. They had a son Sherwood and then the Korean war broke out. My grandpa had a pal at the draft board who told him that Ernie was pretty much next. My grandpa had another pal in the union who told him that there was an opening in the Air Force Marching Band in Chandler, Arizona for a bass drum player. PERFECT! Steel guitar/Bass drum, no problem.

Off to the Airforce where by day he marched with the drum and at night he played gigs with my mom as the singer. Along came my brother David. So now he is 23 wqith two kids and he gets polio. Polio and marching didnt work too well.

While he was in Arizona he heard about the radio repairman named Leo Fender that was making these solid body electric guitars and steel guitars. My Dad took leave and drove to Fullerton and he and Leo hit it off. My Dad thought this was the best thing he had seen. From there he beta tested for Leo, became and endorser and when he got out of the Air Force he became one of the the first Fender dealers. He quickly learned that not everyone shared his passion for Leo's designs. The first store was a little dump that served as a teaching studio for both guitar and accordian.

Teaching was always a passion for my Dad. His Phase one and Two How to Play the Guitar are still huge sellers and he personally taught thousands of players through the fifties and sixties. In the day he taught and did sessions and at night he gigged and played on live TV shows.

He was staff guitarist at both KTLA in Los Angeles and Disney studios. Through his session work he would get the other players to come to his shop and he would set up their guitars. From there they would buy thier guitars from him because the were set up better than the organ stores that also sold guitars. From there he opened what was the first electric guitar store in the world. People said he would go broke and he did many times. He always paid his bills eventually and finally in 1958 things started to turn around.

By the early sixties folk music hit and so did rock and surf. All of the bands shopped in his little store. As rock came there became a need for more flexible guitar strings and the ability to select the exact gauge that you wanted. Back then the only way to get a .010 or .009 was to buy a banjo string.

My dad went to Leo and begged him to equip the guitars with rock n roll strings and to offer them for sale. Leo said no way that the guitars would buzz too much and that it was a fad. He went to Gibson and they turned him down too. Back to Leo and leo said "Ernie, if you think it is such a good idea I'll sell you the strings and you can do what you want with them."

That is when Slinky's were born.... I'll be back in a few days wil part three…… ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/7-history-part-two.html http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/6-welcome-blog.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:51:37 GMT Hi, My name is Sterling Ball and this is my first Blog. The webmasters insisted that we have a Blog. I always thought that guys with blogs are kind of self important and pompous. I guess that may be why they want me to have one. We put this blog on the eye candy page featuring our latest Ball... Hi, My name is Sterling Ball and this is my first Blog. The webmasters insisted that we have a Blog. I always thought that guys with blogs are kind of self important and pompous. I guess that may be why they want me to have one. We put this blog on the eye candy page featuring our latest Ball Family Reserve instruments to lure you in....(Also I can look at the page views and secretly take credit for the blog when it was really the pic's) Two of my Sons who are very active in the business will be coming along posting their side of the story. Big Poppa had to go first.

Really it is a good opportunity to communicate what we are thinking, where we've been, and hopefully where we are going.

About the Family.......I guess it started with my great grandfather Erniest R. Ball. He was a very famous songwriter and vaudville artist. He wrote many famous songs like, When Irish Eyes are Smiling and a ton of other hits of the teens and twenties. He traveled as Ernest R, Ball and Son. That one son was my favorite guy that I still dearly miss, Pop or Roland A Ball. Pop was a character and basically not a player at all but could dazzle you with an accordian, Ukelele, or piano for 3.5 minutes each. That was it. He faked it. Along came my dad. Most of you know him as Ernie Ball but his given name was Roland Sherwood Ball. He went by Sherwood though. Pop divorced my grandma and moved into a swinging batchelor pad in the forties in Santa Monica California. All of the players hung out there. Hawaiian music was big. Pop had the largest Hawaiian music publishing catalog. My Dad went to live with his Dad at 14 and fell in love with the Steel Guitar.......head over heels. Toast. ( By the way can I do run on sentences and bad paragraphs in Blogs?)

He had real talent...(it had obviously skipped Pop's generation) By seventeen myDad was gigging oll over LA and sneaking into clubs to play. when he was eighteen he was on live radio in LA and the radio host came time to introduce my dad and his featured spot and said " Got a great new star on the Steel Guitar....He goes by Sherwood but his granddaddy was Ernest R. Ball (who was still well known then) But I think Ernie is a better name for this kid...." it stuck....Thats how Ernie Ball came to be.

Part two coming..

Actually that wasn't too bad...(at least for me) ]]> Big Poppa http://www.ernieball.com/forums/blogs/big-poppa/6-welcome-blog.html