Variax 300 Nylon questions

[StanPenn1]

After a long hiatus due to a health issue, I'm getting back to a Variax 300 Nylon I bought a few years ago. It's in excellent condition, other than the high E string (#1) having almost no output. BTW, I have a JTV-89F, Acoustic 700, Helix, and more that all work well, and have hoarded some spare parts where feasible.

 

On disassembling and measuring, I found that the bottom (and top) of the saddle slot has a subtle radius. However, the bottom of my current saddle is flat. So, there is insufficient pressure on the piezo strip at the end, which happens to manifest as the high end in this case. There's about 0.012" gap at string #1. This leads to questions:

1.  Do all stock Nylons have a radiused saddle? If so, this would mean mine was replaced at some point.

2. Per another discussion, the bottom of stock saddles also have arches. I expect these are to concentrate pressure on the piezo strip areas below each string, given the low tension for nylon strings. Is this true for all Nylons produced?

3. Is it still possible to obtain a replacement saddle through Line 6, given that we are at 8/2026? Also, I would like to buy a spare piezo (marked "NXP TOP") if possible.

 

As an unrelated question: the guitar came with an XPS Mini power supply. I found a statement (I'll have to dig it up) that the 300s have higher power requirements than subsequent Variaxes, and an XPS A/B Box (I have several) are considered insufficient spec-wise. I would like to have confirmation or denial.

 

As a hack, I sanded the bottom of my saddle for the necessary radius and it fixed the issue. I'm contemplating dremeling arches between the string positions, but will await any responses.

 

Thanks!

-Stan

 

[StanPenn1]

Correction: marked "NFX TOP."