Mathias is on vacation now, but I do not think he removed the neck because he complained that fitting and book-matching the spalt maple (which breaks quickly) top was hard work on a non-bolt-on. He took off a little of the original Epi limba to make room, the spalt maple is about 1/4" thick.
There was nothing wrong with the Epi hardware except that it looked horribly cheap, both in structure and the reddish gold. That is why I added the Hipshot stuff. Putting in the gold TB Plus and replacing the prior soapbar TB Plus was cosmetic too, it's the same pup after all though the metal cover ones sound a bit sharper and more aggressive. They were off an LP Doublecut Bass by the way (left overs after the line was deleted) and are identical with what you have in LP Standards in chrome.
I always wanted a long scale Explorer that looked and sounded the part. The one that Gibson for reasons of their own failed to ever make. Something Spyderish a la JAE. It wouldn't have made sense with a Gibson Explorer whose medium scale is a major letdown and whose maho body/maple neck combination is bland and has none of the warm, lively fuzzy resonance of the Epi models with their soft "wonder wood".
Uwe