I've since taken this guitar to a luthier and had some repairs made that were beyond me (on my to do list is to document those and show off the finished guitar!) He thinks it may have been someone who built it using the dimensions of a neck thru without the skills to make one and hence had to make a slightly odd bolt on! He's added a piece of mahogony between the neck & body in order to fix the action too.

@@richdadams looking forward to seeing and hearing the finished explorer! 🤞