Nut Cut Too Low? JP6 String Break Issues

I’ve had a JP6 for a decade now, and got it when I was much younger and didn’t know as much about guitars how to set them up properly. I got the JP6 because it had the perfect feel and sound for my style and goals. However, a couple things have always bugged me. I tend to break strings on this guitar far more easily than any other guitar (even with EB Paradigms), mostly at the bridge and sometimes the nut, which has made it unreliable when recording or playing out. There are a couple factors I have observed which may contribute to this, and was curious to know others’ thoughts.

There seems to be a lot of resistance on the strings at the bridge – I thought there might be some rough edges inside the string holes, because the D string in particular is usually the first to break, but since I have still broken every other string at certain points I think the issue might be the saddle design itself. It seems they don’t have a nice groove for the string to pass through, so the string sits right up against a bulky edge. I can see how the outer winding on the strings would start to unravel between the saddle and the ball end of the string and then start to stretch the core wire after some bending or fast picking, resulting in breakage. While I love the piezo functionality and would miss it, I have considered removing it and swapping the saddles with some Graphtech String Savers, which have worked amazingly on my Sub1 guitar and others.

The other issue I see is with the nut. It was either cut too low from the factory, or there’s a minor design flaw going on here, primarily with how the low E string sits. I always felt that the string doesn’t ring out as well as the others, and I think it’s because the string makes significant contact with the wood behind the nut, where the fretboard meets the headstock. After the string passes from the bridge to the nut, it should pass directly to the tuning key. Instead, it sits on top of the rosewood and creates a point of friction. I have not seen this on any other guitar model, as there is either less wood or the nut is cut so that the string sits a bit higher up, and doesn’t come into contact with the wood. Has anyone else noticed this on their older JP6 guitars? I see that they have fixed this on the Majestys and newer JP models – the height of the nut at the low E seems to be higher. Mine was completed in 2008. I was considering sanding down the edge of the fretboard wood, but wanted to hold off in case the flaw was actually with the nut. I don’t care about the resale value, I just want it to work.

Has anyone else had the same issues? I’ve used lubricants like Big Bends too and they help but don’t fix the issue.