I purchased a Jeff Miller Tele-Ax (Telecaster/Variax hybrid) thru eBay. The magnetic pickups work fine. But the Variax side of the guitar has some problems. Specifically, the low-E string doesn't produce any volume. The high-E string produces some volume, but it trails off quickly. The middle four strings seem to be OK but the guitar produces a horrendous scratching noise if it's moved/shaken even a little bit (like, just bending a string will cause the scratchiness to occur). Also, the guitar's battery connection doesn't work at all. Not with AA's or 9-volts. The battery problem isn't a huge concern, as I doubt I'd ever use the guitar under battery power with any real regularity, anyway. The major issue is the problem with the sound. I'm guessing that the piezos need to be serviced or replaced? Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, for what it's worth, the Tele-Ax uses the guts from a Variax 500. And I don't own any other Variax-compatible hardware, so I have no way to interface with Workbench to check things like string volumes.