2003 Fender/Baguley/Mojotone Stratocaster

The Metal Strat

The rebirth of my first electric guitar ever, 12 years later… same body wood, new everything-else.

The Story

A year after buying my first guitar, a black-and-white Fender Stratocaster I bought a Burny Les Paul, likely from the 80’s or 90’s. I recall still playing both at that time, but favoring the Burny. A year after that, I sold the Burny and got my PRS Modern Eagle III Prototype. I never looked back. The Burny and the PRS both taught me something: I don’t like maple fretboards! My original Strat, my first electric guitar ever, was thus tucked away and untouched/unplayed for many years to come.

Enter summer of 2026. I’d been loosely curious about the idea of metal as a functional material in guitar-building for several years, but always too far on the periphery to really give a shot. That is, until I realized that I could simply find a new neck for my original Strat and suddenly be in the middle of metal-guitar-world. That and a new loaded pick-guard to both replace the dead pickup (turned out to just be a bad solder job) and eliminate the hum.

Now fully on the other side of the journey, it’s a black Fender Stratocaster body (circa 2003/Mexican), a Baguley solid(!) aluminum neck (with a neat headstock cutout), and a Mojotone 58’ QuietCoil HSS prewired drop-in pickguard. Together, that means the only remaining original parts are the body itself and the output jack! Nonetheless, I’ll continue to love this as my original, first electric guitar… just with a few upgrades. 😉