Tommy Castro has never been much for sitting with a guitar teacher, preferring instead to rely on good ol’ time in the saddle to hone his craft. But this 1966 Stratocaster has taught him a couple lessons.
The guitar entered Castro’s universe in the hands of San Francisco music legend John Newton – known on the scene as Johnny Nitro – when he walkedw in to host his Monday night jam at the Grant & Green Saloon in North Beach one day in 1991. Warming up on his cream three-bolt Strat was Castro, who’d been tolerating – not loving – the tones it was giving him. Curious about Nitro’s guitar, he grabbed it and plugged in. It was love at first note.
“It felt great in my hands, and had the tone I was trying to get out of mine,” said Castro (see interview on page 56).
Having all the discretionary cash of a local blues guitarist, he had to work a deal with Nitro; they swapped Strats and Castro paid the $600 difference in installments, and for the next 20 years, the guitar was his #1, heard on his first 10 albums and seen on countless stages the world over.
Because Nitro was the epitome of the “guitars are tools” player, little is known about the Strat’s back story.
“He bought instruments with no thought at all that they were investments, and he liked tinkering,” said Castro. “He was a mechanic by trade and actually got his nickname at the racetrack, where he fueled-up dragsters. He’d take guitars apart to switch out necks and pickups and pickguards. I imagine quite a few came and went when he needed money or whatever. He never told me much about this one except it was one of his many and that it was all-original except for the pickups.”
Given its status as a road warrior, it’s no surprise that with Castro it has seen its share of shop time. Turned out, one pickup was indeed original while another was from the ’50s and the third was a complete mystery. Castro had a set of Seymour Duncans installed, and to remedy a constantly breaking high E string, gave it graphite saddles.
For the next two decades, Castro played a few million notes on it, gracing it with dings, dents, buckle rash, and forearm wear all earned the hard way.
“Even before I took it on tour, we were play ing 300 shows every year without leaving the Bay Area, and it was the only guitar I had,” Castro recalled. “If I broke a string, I had to replace it in the middle of a song (laughs).”
So, why did he bench it? Because in 2012, somebody stole it out of the car belonging to his front-of-house guy. And while it was gone for only two days before a friend tracked it down at a pawn shop, anyone who has had a special guitar stolen knows the incredible sense of loss. For Castro, the emotion carried extra weight.
“Nitro was such a good friend – basically a mentor to me – and he had passed on the year before. To say the guitar meant a lot would be an understatement; for two days, I was super-depressed and just felt really stupid and guilty for not keeping a better eye on it.”
Nobody could blame him for putting the guitar someplace where it wouldn’t face potential damage or another disappearance. In 2021, Castro moved to the desert in Southern California, where the guitar stayed in a closet.
“Every now and then, I’d open the door and see it. It was sad. And I know it’s an inanimate object, but I felt like the guitar was as sad as I was because it wasn’t getting any love (laughs).”
But of course, time heals all wounds…
“One day, I just became overwhelmed with the thought of how silly it was to have that beautiful instrument not living its best life. I thought, ‘I’ve gottta take the chance. Yeah, I could lose it, but I’m going to play it.”
Plugging it in post-hibernation, he was reminded that its high-mileage pickups and electronics were wonky.
“I went back to Seymour Duncan, wanting to try Noiseless stacked pickups because I’d been playing my Delaney Strat copy with those and they sounded pretty good. But in this one, they just didn’t sound right, so we tried a single-coil set – I don’t recall exactly which, but I think they were copies of pickups from Strats of the Hendrix era. They didn’t quite cut it either, so I went back to the drawing board and started talking to M.J. (Maricela Juarez), and we decided that to get close to a mid-’60s Strat, Antiquities would do the trick. She was right! Now I’ve got my old guitar back and I’m having a great time playing it.”
Further rejuvenations involved removing that graphite in the bridge area.
“With the new pickups, I took it to my guitar tech, Chris Barnett, and said, ‘Can we put a regular set of saddles on this? These graphite ones… I think they’re doing something to my tone.’ He said, ‘Yeeeah! I told you that a long time ago!’ I said, ‘Yeah… you were right.’ He only had leftovers from two sets, but I had a gig the next day and needed to get it done, so we installed them and that’s how it’s been ever since.”
The Strat is the star instrument on Castro’s new album, Closer To The Bone, set for release February 7 on Alligator Records, and it’s on the road right now with him and The Painkillers. – Ward Meeker
Do you have a collectible/vintage guitar with an interesting personal story that might be a good fit for “Classics?” If so, send an e-mail to ward@vintageguitar.com for details on how it could be featured.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
