Ernie Ball

The company's founder, veteran player and teacher Ernie Ball, created Slinky strings, which JHS Pedals' history calls "the modern electric guitar string as we know it today"⁴. The family-run company maintains its founder's dedication, and today offers strings and accessories alongside hand-crafted high-end Music Man guitars and basses⁵.

From a guitar store to strings, Music Man and pedals

Ernie Ball started his own business in 1962, seeking to sell guitars and only guitars, at a time when this was considered a risky idea⁴. Because musicians wanted to learn how to play the new rock'n'roll, Ernie also opened a teaching studio⁴. Slinkys began unconventionally: the packs originally had banjo frailing strings as the playing strings, hand-coiled by Ernie's kids into guitar string packs and sold out of his store⁴.

In 1984 the Ernie Ball company acquired the Music Man brand⁴. The philosophy of Ernie Ball Music Man is:

Ernie Ball Music Man's stated philosophy is that neither man nor machine can build the perfect guitar, but the combination of both can make the best guitar in the world⁴. Alongside the strings, the company offers hand-crafted high-end Music Man guitars and basses⁵.

JHS Pedals' history of the company⁴

The instrument side continues with signature models: in November 2022, Ernie Ball Music Man was set to officially launch Tosin Abasi's Kaizen signature guitar⁷.

Known for volume and expression pedals

The volume pedal is the product that put Ernie Ball on the effects map. As a lap steel guitar player, Ernie wanted volume control at his fingertips, and he worked with close friend and employee Ron Saul to design a pedal that could do just that; together they designed an original pulley system and the string system for the pedal⁴.

The release date is reported two ways. JHS Pedals dates the original volume pedal to 1975⁴, while Ernie Ball's own product pages and Guitar World's anniversary coverage place the Volume Pedal's introduction in 1977⁶⁸. MusicRadar notes this basic design has been going strong since 1977, and that the company can make the claim that it's the world's best-selling volume pedal⁹.

The original pedal's chassis used two pieces of angle iron welded together, with side-mounted input sockets that were later moved to the front. Ernie Ball went on to offer a range of models, including mono and stereo units plus pedals for use with passive or active electronics¹⁰.

The range has since grown well beyond the original:

Ernie Ball worked with close friend and employee Ron Saul to design the volume pedal, and together they designed an original pulley system and the string system for the pedal⁴. The company claims it is the world's best-selling volume pedal⁹¹², and the design carries into other products: the Ernie Ball Ambient Delay uses a full-sized expression control modeled on EB's famous volume pedal design⁹¹². One reviewer's verdict was blunt:

Ernie Ball is known above all for volume and expression pedals. The company's VP volume pedal is claimed by the maker to be the world's best-selling volume pedal⁹¹², and the Ambient Delay's expression control is modeled on that same volume pedal design⁹. The original pedal came out of a collaboration between Ernie Ball and his close friend and employee Ron Saul, who together designed its original pulley system and string system⁴. Reviewers have echoed the reputation: Premier Guitar's NAMM 2020 coverage credited Ernie Ball with making "the best volume and expression pedals in the industry"¹.

Guitar World's reviewer went as far as to write that "Ernie ball makes the best volume and expression pedals in the industry"¹.

Ernie Ball's newer expression-based effects

In 2016 Ernie Ball moved into compact effects with the Expression Series: two hybrid pedals for guitar and bass, the Expression Overdrive and Ambient Delay, that allow on-the-fly, dynamic foot-control rather than the knob-twiddling of traditional stomp pedals¹³¹⁴. The mechanics of the design are based on the company's existing range of foot controllers, and both pedals pack a PVC-coated Kevlar cord and spring linkage for enhanced durability¹⁵¹⁶.

The line expanded in 2018 with the Expression Tremolo, a tremolo pedal with onboard reverb in a rocker-style expression pedal chassis¹⁷¹⁶³. You control the depth, rate, or both parameters simultaneously with the foot treadle, and the pedal still operates via the same loop and string system as the original volume pedal¹⁷¹⁸. It has a mono input and mono output¹⁹.

All three pedals are housed in a sturdy aluminum chassis and are fitted with an "unbreakable" Kevlar cord that links the treadle to the pedal's internals via a short spring, according to guitar.com's review²⁰. MusicRadar's reviewer found the Expression Tremolo "a welcome addition to the range, with controls for depth, rate, wave shape and a decent reverb"¹⁷, while the same outlet's verdict on the Expression Overdrive was blunt: "A great pedal, but it comes at a price"²¹.

On Sweetwater's demo video, Don Carr introduced the Expression Tremolo as "a tremolo and Reverb that's built into an expression pedal," showing how the rocker-style pedal sweeps the effect in real time³.

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Support

Ernie Ball's product pages list a support line at 1-800-543-2255⁶. The volume pedals' long history also means a healthy modding and integration culture: JHS sells an Active No Loss mod for the pedal²², and third parties such as Vertex document compatibility between the 25K Stereo Volume Pedal and their own gear. The Expression Series pedals carry road-worthy metal construction¹⁴.

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