My first was a Peak Eiger Ultra with a custom led. XP-G2 S2 I believe, cherry-picked by Cutter from a lower bin.
Then long nothing…and I came here.
I bought my first white LED light in 2003: a “MasterLED TL 267 Pocket Light with 5 High-Output LEDs”, running on 3×AA cells, made in Germany and very well waterproofed. Five 5mm cool white LEDs arranged in a circle, but pretty decent for the time, because the LEDs had a proper white tint, rather than blue-white or purple-white.
It still works. My mother has it, she likes it and she’s refused several offers of an upgrade 
My first was a mod, a Maglite Solitaire with the incan replaced by a 3mm LED and 3 button cells with a plastic spacer. It gave it a significant boost in output.
My first real LED light was a Inova X5 for $40.
I ended up having to buy another for my dad for $30 and one more for me because I wanted a tailswitch too.
So now I have 3 sort of blue kind of weak lights that are bombproof.
My next was a Fenix P3D for $60.
Lights have gotten so much better and budget friendly.
(and habit forming)
Sounds like a good excuse as any to get into modding 
An emitter swap would get you set right quick.
I wish, the mod would probably start with a bandsaw and the only thing really usable would be the tube and tailcap.
It is a CR123 light with the batteries reversed and 5 old school LEDs like a free HF light.
