Roland Sherwood „Ernie“ Ball was a musician and inventor of thin, fast playable strings for electric guitars. Ever since he was 19 he was touring through the states, first as a steel guitar player with the Tommy-Duncan-band and later with the air force. After his army duty Ernie Ball settled in Los Angeles and worked as a guitar teacher at first and later in 1958 opened a music shop in Tarzana near Hollywood, meanwhile he has become one of the world best known manufacturers of electric guitar and bass strings.

In the early 60´s Ernie Ball developed very thin strings for rock´n´roll guitarists called slinky, they could be played better and faster than the thicker banjo strings that had been used until then. This development revolutionized the string market for guitars. He also introduced the custom string, made to suite the needs of the individual player. Up to today the Ernie Ball Slinky strings belong to the most sold strings worldwide. In 1967 the company was moved to New Port Beach and industrial production began in order to keep up to the strong demand

Ernie Ball has always had strong working relationships with guitarists to keep his products optimized and up to date. In 1984 he acquired the company Music Man and made it one of the leading brands for electric guitars and basses. Since 2003 the string production is in Indio, Californian and Music Man instruments are manufactured in San Luis Obispo. Today the Ernie Ball Corporation produces following strings : Ernie Ball Super Slinky, Ernie Ball Extra Slinky, Ernie Ball Regular Slinky, Ernie Ball Power Slinky and Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky. Ernie Ball strings are also available for acoustic guitars and electric basses and the company also makes plectrums. In 2005 two new strings where introduced , a series for dropped D including : Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky and Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky and the second being a new edition of a old Rock ´n´ Roll series including Ernie Ball Super Slinky Rock ´n´ Roll Classics, these strings have a warm sound due to the use of Nickel in stead of Steel. Bands and guitar players using Ernie Ball strings are : Eric Clapton, Steve Lukather, Steve Morse, Jimmy Page, Angus Young, Blink 182, The Eagles, Evanescence, Green Day, Guns N´ Roses, Iron Maiden, Less than Jake, Maroon 5, Matchbox 20, Metallica, MxPx, NOFX, Phantom Planet, Slipknot, Social Distortion, System of a Down und the used.