This is my 4th Variax 300 added to my collection that I just picked up a few weeks ago. I'm a firm believer in maintaining it's original condition, with a few exceptions pertaining to it's playability etc!!. Then I had an IDEA, what if I could enhance my new variax without defiling, gutting, butchering or performing an out right frankenstein job on it. Then I started to think through a plan that would not deface and or permanently impair the guitar . My idea was to surface mount all or most of it's new features.  "PICKUPS".  Every one would love to mount real pickups on their variax , but thats not easy , LITTLE TO NO ROOM. the answer has always come down to "THE ALL MIGHTY VARIAX TRANSPLANT". However,  with my plan I was able to strip down and open up four thin magnetic acoustic / electric pickups, coupling two together and wiring each pair side by side, creating two fully functional humbucking pickups, encapsulating them into two thin surface mount plastic covers. The pickup controls were also surface mounted and integrated with the roland GK2 pickup system which was also surface mounted. My hand built active pickup electronics package replaced the Variax 300 battery holder , neatly tucked away into the battery compartment on the back of the Variax 300.  All and all, it was pretty straight forward, However there was a quite a bit of tedium with the plumbing (wiring) that was involved. So after all that I was able to accomplish so far, It sounds and plays great, and is much more versatile than your standard fare Variax 300. By know means is my Variax 300 MOD suppose to be the answer to, or be the " POOR MAN'S" version of the Line 6  James Tyler Variax or perhaps even the Parker Adrian Belew signature Fly Deluxe. Maybe it is a force to be reckoned with , but I seriously doubt that. It was just a challenging and delightful project to have worked on. Total cost including the recently purchased Variax 300 was less than $200, I had some of the components available to me at no cost. My modifications are somewhat reversible. So be kind to that old Variax 300, Be creative, experiment , don't destroy.  Attached are several photos of the Variax 300 MOD for your viewing interests.