All About You FRIDAY – Be Slinky

In the early 1950’s, a young musician by the name of Ernie Ball came out of the Air Force. He played guitar, pedal steel and had a passion for teaching music. He opened up a teaching studio and started mentoring young guitar players. Rock and roll was starting to take root and the musicians began wanting to bend strings to express themselves.

There are six strings on a typical guitar and they are tuned to the notes: E A D G B E. Originally, the top four strings (E-G) were heavy gauge and wound, meaning there is a material that is wound around the center string. This made the string thicker and louder which was important in the days before amplification. But as rock and roll and electric guitars emerged, Ernie saw that it was difficult for his students to bend the G string as is often desired in that genre of music.

He reached out to the major manufactures of the day, Fender and Gibson, asking them to produce lighter gauged strings for electric guitars. But they weren’t interested in changing the status quo. So, Ernie began taking the thinnest string of a banjo, replacing the high E string and moving the other ones up, eliminating the thickest string. Now musicians could bend and express themselves through their music and a string pack for a new era was born. He named them Ernie Ball Slinky’s because they could bend like a slinky.

Instead of opting for the normal black and white packaging, he consulted the young kids in his neighborhood and opted for bright neon colors. He hired legendary Disney Imagineer, Rolly Crump, to design the logo and iconography for the packaging that is still used today.

Then in the early 1960’s a young guitar player from a soon to be famous surfer rock band walked into Ernie’s shop and bought a set of Slinky strings. He was hooked. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys became one of the first professional musicians to play a set of Ernie Ball Slinky’s. He told his friends and they told their friends and the rest is history.

By 1967, rock and roll had permeated American culture and, based on these new strings, California becomes the center of this new sound. Ernie closes his guitar shop and moves to Newport Beach to focus on producing strings. On the back of each package are the names of famous musicians who have used Slinky strings. I can imagine a young player seeing all those names and thinking one day he could go from playing in his garage to playing on the big stage.

So what’s slinky? According to Ernie Ball, it’s about being bendy. Being there now. Being the one that grabs you and inspires. It’s about listening to what people really need and responding. It’s about being creative.

I can’t think of a better lesson for business owners and healthcare professionals. We need to be slinky. Be power, super, hybrid, extra, zippy, mighty or primo. Pick your flavor. Express your stye. But don’t get stuck in the rut of status quo. Be slinky.

It’s been a long week. Don’t forget to celebrate.

Until next time…