Hello MHT63, welcome to the forum.

EX5 was my first build that i commenced about 3 years ago. You can check out the build diary in my signature.
From memory the fret board overhang covers up any gaps where neck heel and body meet.
Strongly suggest buying a better nut as the stock one is most likely just black hollowed out plastic. I bought a Warwick look alike 'Adjust-a-nut' and it is great.
Bridge that comes with the kit is ok but the saddles tend to sit high resulting in a higher than comfortable action from around 12th fret and upwards. I am still playing around with a different bridge that was installed recently and need to reset action or do some fret leveling too as it buzzes in more places than it should.
Stock pickups sound ok but low on output which is a surprise given their resistance readings that were somewhere around 16k ohms. High action didn't help but had already decided to install some better pickups. If on a budget the stock ones are adequate enough to get by. Just wired up one of those ebay belcat clone pre amps in my MMB4 for about $20 and it might be the answer to providing a bit more grunt without spending $200 or more on replacement pickups. Control cavity is tight and would suggest removing blend pot and installing a small mini dpdt 3 position switch as a pickup selector if contemplating this modification.
Once built, these are a ton of fun to play. Very long and in Oz there were no hard case options however i did discover it may fit inside a Dean hardcase. In fact it just squeezes into the Epiphone explorer 6 string guitar case but rubbing its nose and bum if you know what i mean. Something slightly bigger would do the trick. I ended up buying a gig bag on Amazon from the states that may have cost about $80 delivered on Oz.
Good luck with the build and will be keen to see how it progresses.
Cheers, Waz

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