This is my Ernie Ball.
Its neck is way smaller than the old Kramers had. I heard they used a laser to scan in the dimensions off Ed's Frankenstrat and whatever neck he had on it at the time to get an exact replica when designing the Ernie Ball guitars. I've played a lot of them and they do all feel alike. Likewise, I played a lot of Kramers and just about no two of them feel alike.
I heard Ed got dropped by Ernie Ball because he was nailing Mrs. Sterling Ball. So they just kept making the same guitars with without his name on the headstock, relocated the toggle switch and now call it the Axis. Since Ed was already with Peavey for his amps, he had them build his next guitar. In fact, I saw him playing the prototypes of the Peavey Wolfgang when I was in the front row for a show on the Balance tour. At that time, there were no announcements or ads for the Wolfgang. Had I not been so close up, I'd have not noticed it was a Peavey.
Now he's parted ways with Peavey and is with Fender for his new line of amps and guitars, which look pretty much like the Peaveys, but cost more. I have no interest in any of that. To me the Ernie Ball guitar is the best one I've ever played and it's one of my most prized toys.
When I bought my first Hot Rod DeVille, I brought my Ernie Ball to the Guitar Center to try out the amp. By then the Axis had been out for a while and the EVH models were skyrocketing and hard to find. You should have seen all the people gawking at the guitar. A few of the employees asked if they could try it out, which I kind of wanted, so I could crank the amp up and walk around the store to see how it sounded from a distance. Anyway, it's a real gem and I don't like to even take it out of the house anymore.