This guitar started its life as a Squier Bullet Strat that my wife bought me as a gift in 2002 for $225 includung a hardcase.
It was the first guitar I ever pulled to bits, added bits, modded bits etc etc.
It eventually was my first refinishing job (it was black poly - the bulletproof stuff). After 10 years and numerous pickup changes, saddle changes, tuners and so on; it was in need of a re-fret. I didn't do fret work at the time so I paid $350 to have it done. Yes, that alone was roughly 200% more than the initial cost of the the guitar alone .
It has contiued to be a testbed for lots of stuff, and a couple of years ago, I turned it into a Tele-fied Strat. I made a custom pickgard and loaded it with a set of handwound Tele pickups (by Dave Leddin). I've lost count of how many iterations of this guitar there have been...
Long story longer, I pulled it out today after being in the cupboard for probably six months or more and... holy crap!
I quickly rememberd why I've kept it all these years. It just plays and sounds great. I've always loved the neck on this thing (hence lashing out for a re-fret). The only thing I was unsure about is why have not played it in so long???
It's taking a place in a stand next to the desk now. I don't want it to be neglected again...