Tuesday, June 9, 2026

A tone ball

I heard something shifting around inside my guitar. After nearly thirty-two years, the maker’s label had detached from the back of the instrument. I turned the guitar upside down, shifted it around a bit, and Elaine pulled the label out of a f-hole with tweezers. And I shook out the two little pieces of Fun-Tak that had held the label in place.

And then I discovered this tone ball. My first.

[In real life, ¾" tall.]

The term tone ball comes from an unnamed employee at Elderly Instruments. We saw their impressive display of tone balls in 2011. Thank goodness Elaine snagged a screenshot of a page from Fretboard Journal (no longer available online) about Elderly’s display.

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