Ernie Ball the second biggest string manufacturer in the country. He was unorthodox in his management methods, disregarding market surveys, preferring instead to test products in the marketplace to see if they would succeed. He regarded profit-and-loss as necessary evils and trusted his instincts. In the early eighties the company bought the Music Man Company, expanding into the production of high quality guitars, basses, and amplifiers with Leo Fender making the instruments and Tom Walker building amps. Ball, along with former Fender employee, George Fullerton, was instrumental in the development of the first modern acoustic bass guitar, introduced under the Earthwood brand in 1972. Although unsuccessful, surviving models are highly collectable. In 1985, the company was moved to a new facility in San Luis Obispo and remained there with all of it operations until early 2003, when the company relocated its string manufacturing to Coachella in Southern California’s Riverside County. Under Ball's leadership, it grossed more than $40 million per annum. The company established an annual Battle of the Bands contest and participated in other trade events nationwide. Battle of the Bands In 1997, the very first Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands kicked off at the San Francisco date of the Warped Tour. The Battle of The Bands 1 had 18 stops in its first year and developed into a long-lasting relationship with Kevin Lyman and the Warped Tour. Starting in 2000, Sterling Ball partnered with Chris Robinson VP of Electro Voice to promote the growth of the tour. In 2016, the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands was rebranded to Ernie Ball: PLAY Warped. The 2016 marked the 20th anniversary of the Ernie Ball/Warped Tour Battle of the Bands relationship. Ernie Ball: The Pursuit of Tone In 2016, Ernie Ball created, produced, and launched Ernie Ball: The Pursuit of Tone, a documentary series on the now defunct AT&T Audience Network that focused on the careers of a few well-known guitarists, including Buddy Guy, Mike Ness (Social Distortion), Billy Duffy (The Cult), Tom Delonge (Blink-182, Box Car Racer, Angels and Airwaves), James Valentine (Maroon 5) and Hunter Hayes. Ernie Ball: String Theory In 2016, Ernie Ball launched Ernie Ball: String Theory, a web series that focuses on how today's top guitarists and bassists came to play the specific alloy(s) and gauge(s) of guitar strings that help them achieve their signature sounds. Artists have included Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Justin Chancellor