Hi NotJack, welcome to the expanding Explorer owners club.

Stan is on the money with taking a bit out of the back of the neck PUP cavity as on my EX-1 I found out after the neck had been set for a few days and was way too late to do anything. Looked into all sorts of different mounting ring ideas before going top loaded as that ended up being the best method and looks much cleaner than the botch job I might have done.

Moving the bridge would be harder to get right. Just a shame that the thickness of the neck PUP mounting ring was not factored in at the factory as it is almost impossible to intonate these things if you slide the neck forward to accommodate such.

Cheers, Waz