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Literally a family thing
Guitar World has a story how Steve Morse’s faulty pedal lead to his 40 years long collaboration with Ernie Ball:
“The gear stripped out, and there was no way to fix it. So I went looking for a volume pedal, and the Ernie Ball booth was nearby. I saw they had this really cool pedal that’s basically the same one they still sell.
“I said, ‘That looks rugged. It’s everything I need. Can I buy that?’” he continues. “They said, ‘No, that’s a show thing.’ ‘Can I borrow it to do my demo?’ ‘Well, let me ask Ern.’”
It turned out Morse was talking to David Ball, son of Ernie himself. After the random run-in, one thing lead to another, and before long Morse was gigging with Ball’s other two sons, Sherwood and Sterling.
It was a serendipitous start to a powerful partnership, as Morse would later find out.
Steve’s quotes are taken from an interview he gave to Guitar World at the NAMM’2026, which they promise to publish online “in the near future”. Meanwhile, read more of the story in Guitar World.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
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