For most guitarists, playing a Jimi Hendrix Strat is the stuff of fantasy. For Ray Toro, it became a year-long reality — even if the Fender Stratocaster itself was, in his words, “beat to shit.”
Toro has always shown an appreciation for rock’s formative electric guitar heroes, and though he calls himself a die-hard “Les Paul guy,” the chance to spend time with a Hendrix Strat was too good to pass up.
Brian May’s stacked harmonies, Tom Petty’s gift for hitmaking and the Beatles’ boundary-pushing have all informed Toro’s voice on the instrument, albeit filtered through My Chemical Romance’s hyper-successful emo-rock lens. As a guitarist, he’s a prime example of how rock’s roots can be reshaped for modern audiences. One guitar, though, helped him connect with the past more than ever.
“I’m still a Les Paul player, but recently I had the chance to play one of Jimi Hendrix’s Strats,” he told Guitar World in a recently republished interview from 2011. “Totally mind-blowing.”
I had shown up at the studio and didn’t have a guitar to play, so Jimmy let me use this Hendrix Strat that he got from Jimi’s old guitar tech.”
— Ray Toro
The interview appeared shortly after the release of the band’s fourth album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, the follow-up to 2006’s Grammy-nominated The Black Parade. As Toro explained in it, Danger Days was difficult to make. The band was burnt out from touring behind The Black Parade and had trouble finding their footing.
When they did, it was in the proto-punk sounds of the 1960s and ’70s, with a heavy sprinkling of psychedelia. For Toro, the Hendrix Strat was particularly inspiring.
“This guy, Jimmy, from Mates Rehearsal Studios in California, had one,” Toro recalled. “I had shown up at the studio and didn’t have a guitar to play, so Jimmy let me use this Hendrix Strat that he got from Jimi’s old guitar tech.
“The thing was beat to shit,” he said, “but it was the best-playing guitar ever. I played it for a year — Jimmy let me use it in the studio. Man, I loved that.”
The year-long experience with one of Hendrix’s Fender Stratocasters — which, as a right-handed player, Toro could finally play the “right” way around — also made him rethink his own guitar arsenal.
“Live, I’m still a Les Paul guy, but playing Jimi Hendrix’s Strat really got me interested in Strats and other guitars,” Toro admitted. “In fact, I’m in desperate search for the ultimate Tele to play. If I can find one, I’m there.”
A similar sentiment has been voiced by modern blues heavyweight Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who has had the opportunity to play several historic Stratocasters courtesy of the late Jim Irsay, including David Gilmour’s Black Strat and Hendrix’s Woodstock Strat. For Shepherd, those experiences underscored just how far ahead of the curve Hendrix truly was.
“He was incredibly innovative, especially if you consider the technology — or the lack of technology — that was available to him back then,” Shepherd said (via Loudwire Nights on Demand).
“He had, like, three pedals in his rig, because that was basically every pedal available at the time. And it’s amazing — all the ideas and sounds he was able to create with such limited resources.”
As for Toro’s Telecaster quest, it appears to have paid off. A 2005 Custom Shop model became one of his most-used guitars on the band’s 2025 tour.
“It’s everything you’d want out of a Tele,” his tech, Josh Schreibeis, told Premier Guitar last year. “There’s a stretch of about five or six songs where it’s used, and it sounds amazing. For ‘Mama’ particularly, it’s really spanky. It’s perfect with a [Fender] Deluxe.”
