Ernie Ball was an American entrepreneur and musician. Around 1958 Ernie Ball opened probably the first American music store selling exclusively guitars.
In the 1960s Ernie noticed a demand for lighter gauge strings, associated with the rock and roll playing styles.

The Ernie Ball Slinky range of guitar strings were officially launced in 1962 and remain popular today.

The German based Behringer company designs and manufactures audio products, including public address systems, mixing consoles, amplifiers and audio processing units.  Their guitar gear includes a large range of stompbox effects, amplifiers, interface boxes and some guitars.