“Since probably 1990, I’ve essentially used the same exact setup,” Dave Navarro told Guitar Player. “It’s basically Boss pedals, a Dunlop Cry Baby wah and my Marshall. I’m not a gear head or a tech head. I like my stuff to be on the floor in front of me, so I can turn knobs. If something goes wrong, I can unplug it and bypass it if I have to. I don’t want to have a rack of gear that has me scrolling through parameters to get a sound.” Two guitarists in succession in this guide — Dean DeLeo (Series 2 #154) of Stone Temple Pilots and Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction — have identified their rigs as essentially unchanged since 1990. The similarity is not coincidental. Both are Los Angeles-based guitarists who emerged from the specific late-1980s LA alternative rock scene, both found their sound in the specific combination of equipment that suited the specific music they were making, and both have had the confidence and the artistic integrity to maintain that rig against the constant industry pressure to update, refresh, and re-brand gear relationships. Navarro’s Boss pedals, Dunlop wah, and Marshall have been the foundation of Jane’s Addiction’s guitar sound for thirty-five years. They continue to be.
David Michael Navarro was born on June 7, 1967, in Santa Monica, California. His mother, Constance Hopkins, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend when Navarro was fifteen years old — a trauma that he has discussed with characteristic directness in interviews and that shaped his early relationship to the guitar as an emotional outlet. “After his mother was murdered when he was 15 years old, Navarro turned to playing guitar as a creative outlet and coping mechanism,” as the History Tools biography documents. His early influences — Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton — were absorbed through his teens and combined with the specific aesthetic of the Los Angeles underground art-rock scene in which Perry Farrell was developing Jane’s Addiction. He became a founding member of the band in 1985 alongside Farrell, bassist Eric Avery, and drummer Stephen Perkins. He has played in Jane’s Addiction across multiple reunion periods, briefly joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1993–1998), and hosted the reality competition show Rock Star: INXS and Rock Star: Supernova. He lives in West Hollywood. He is tattooed from the neck down. He has three Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedals on his board, each set for a different function. He remains one of the most theatrically compelling guitarists in alternative rock.
Background: Santa Monica, Mother’s Murder, Guitar as Coping, Los Angeles Underground, Jane’s Addiction Formation
The biographical context of Navarro’s guitar playing is as dramatic as any in this guide — the murder of his mother when he was fifteen is not merely a biographical detail but the specific event that oriented his relationship to the guitar, transforming it from a musical interest into a psychological necessity. Musicians who describe their instruments as “a place to go” are often speaking metaphorically; Navarro’s guitar was literally the place he went when there was nowhere else. This specific relationship — the guitar as survival tool, as emotional container, as the place where the unprocessable becomes processable — gives his playing its specific quality of intensity that goes beyond what technical accomplishment alone could explain.
Jane’s Addiction’s formation in Los Angeles in 1985 placed Navarro in the specific context that would shape his musical vocabulary most decisively: the LA underground art scene of the mid-1980s, where Perry Farrell’s theatrical sensibility, his specific approach to staging and costume and visual spectacle, and his compositional ambition (songs that span multiple time signatures, that shift between acoustic guitar and full-band electric, that reference everything from Burroughs to Hendrix within a single four-minute song) required a guitarist who could accommodate all of this without losing either technical control or emotional directness. Nothing’s Shocking (1988) and Ritual de lo Habitual (1990) were the two albums on which Navarro’s specific guitar vocabulary was fully developed: the combination of metal-influenced riffing, psychedelic effects processing, jazz-influenced chord voicings, and theatrical dynamics that defines the Jane’s Addiction sound.
His brief tenure with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1993–1998, recording One Hot Minute in 1995) represented the most commercially visible departure from his Jane’s Addiction identity. The period was personally and creatively difficult — his heroin addiction was at its worst, and the creative fit with the Chili Peppers’ funk-rock orientation was imperfect. He has spoken candidly about the period in retrospect. His return to Jane’s Addiction (multiple reunions from 1997 onward) has produced the most creatively vital work of his later career, including the Strays album (2003) and subsequent activity.
The Rig: Dave Navarro’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
PRS Dave Navarro Signature (Primary Career Guitar, PRS HFS + Vintage Bass Pickups): Dave Navarro’s primary guitar throughout his career with Jane’s Addiction has been the Paul Reed Smith Dave Navarro Signature model — a relationship that began when he broke his Ibanez guitars during the late 1980s Jane’s Addiction tours and borrowed a PRS from a friend. “Dave busted up most of his Ibanez guitars while on tour with Jane’s Addiction in the late ’80s and borrowed a PRS from a friend,” the ADHD Guitarist documentation notes. He responded immediately to the PRS’s feel and tonal character and initiated the signature model relationship. The Dave Navarro Signature PRS features his specific pickup preferences: a PRS HFS (Hot For Strings) humbucker in the bridge position — a high-output, bright, articulate humbucker designed by Paul Reed Smith to provide the clarity and note definition that standard high-output humbuckers often lose — and a PRS Vintage Bass pickup in the neck position, providing the warm, full-bodied jazz-influenced neck tone. This pickup combination — “a PRS HFS in the bridge and a Vintage Bass in the neck. Dave’s pickups haven’t changed at all since his early days with PRS” — has been the tonal foundation of his sound since the early 1990s.
The PRS signature model is documented in Guitar Player: “Although he’s occasionally played models by Fender, Ibanez and Parker, during his career with Jane’s Addiction (and as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) Navarro has relied mainly on PRS electric guitars.” The PRS Custom 24 body style — 24 frets, mahogany body with maple top, Floyd Rose tremolo or PRS fixed bridge — provides the specific combination of access (24 frets reach the upper registers unavailable on shorter-fret instruments) and tonal character (the mahogany/maple combination provides warm body with bright top end) appropriate for his range of playing.
PRS SE Dave Navarro Signature (Budget Model): PRS released a Dave Navarro SE (Student Edition) model — the budget version of his signature, built in Indonesia to more accessible specifications while maintaining the core design elements. Navarro was “cautious, wanting it to be as close to the original as possible” and has continued to advocate for PRS guitars even after the signature line was temporarily discontinued.
Ibanez RG Series (Early Jane’s Addiction Days, Still Used for Older Songs): Navarro’s pre-PRS primary instrument was the Ibanez RG series — the Japanese-made superstrat with Floyd Rose tremolo, thin neck profile, and high-output humbuckers that was the standard instrument of late-1980s hard rock and alternative metal guitarists. He used Ibanez guitars through the Nothing’s Shocking era before the tour-related destruction of his Ibanez collection led him to PRS. “Dave used Ibanez guitars in the early days of Jane’s Addiction and has recently pulled one out for older songs” — meaning the Ibanez’s specific tonal character for certain material from Nothing’s Shocking is preserved by returning to the original instrument type for those songs live.
Kurt Cobain’s Fender Musicmaster (Gift from Courtney Love): One of the more extraordinary instruments in Navarro’s documented collection is a Fender Musicmaster that belonged to Kurt Cobain and was given to Navarro by Courtney Love. The Fender Musicmaster — a student-model short-scale guitar from the late 1950s and 1960s — is not a high-end instrument by any measure, but its biographical weight (as a Cobain instrument given by Cobain’s widow to the guitarist of one of the bands that Cobain most admired) gives it a specific significance beyond its tonal character. The Equipboard documentation notes: “This was used by Kurt Cobain and given to Dave by Courtney Love.”
Epiphone Acoustic (Live “Three Days” and Acoustic Passages): Guitar Player documents that Navarro has “relied mainly on PRS electric and Epiphone acoustic guitars” — the Epiphone acoustic appearing in live performance contexts for the acoustic passages in Jane’s Addiction’s repertoire. “Jane Says” (performed on acoustic guitar) is the most celebrated example: the song’s specific acoustic guitar tone (strummed, rhythmic, with the specific character of a decent acoustic through a live PA) is the instrumental context for one of Jane’s Addiction’s most beloved songs.
Physical Playing Philosophy — Theatrical and Technical: Navarro’s playing style is as much physical as tonal — his stage presence includes dramatic gestures, feedback manipulation, and the specific theatrical approach that suits Jane’s Addiction’s art-rock performance aesthetic. His guitar work includes pinch harmonics, unconventional chord voicings, and the specific technique of manipulating the Boss DD-3’s delay time by hand to create “crazy noises” — documented in the BOSS Behind the Board article as his “noise pedal” application.
Amps
Marshall JCM900 (Primary Career Amplifier, “Same Since 1990”): Dave Navarro’s primary amplifier is the Marshall JCM900 — a model that, as he told Guitar Player, has been his foundational amp “since probably 1990.” The JCM900 is Marshall’s transition-era amplifier between the JCM800 (which preceded it) and the JCM2000 (which followed) — featuring a modified high-gain circuit with a “naturally scooped midrange (meaning the mid frequencies are slightly recessed, giving it a scooped, hollow character),” as the YouTube Music Sucks analysis notes. The scooped mid character — different from the more forward, present midrange of the JCM800 — gives the JCM900’s distortion a specific “dense” quality that suits the layered guitar textures of Jane’s Addiction’s arrangements. “When Jane’s Addiction broke out in the late ’80s, Navarro was running Marshall JCM900 heads — a staple of alternative and hard rock at the time. That amp has a naturally scooped midrange which paired perfectly with the dense low end of Perry Farrell’s arrangements.”
The JCM900’s headroom, its specifically scooped midrange character, and its response to the Boss DD-3 delays in his signal chain are what make the specific combination work: the delays running into the JCM900’s character produce the specific spatial, reverberant guitar sound that defined Jane’s Addiction’s recording approach. Running the Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer-style overdrive into the already-driven JCM900 — “the pedal compresses the signal and pushes the amp into tighter, more focused saturation, rather than just adding more distortion on top” — gives the saturated lead tone its specific tight, present quality.
Fender Deluxe Reverb (Clean Contexts): A Fender Deluxe Reverb appears in Navarro’s documented rig for clean and semi-clean contexts — the classic American tube warmth providing the acoustic-adjacent tonal character for Jane’s Addiction’s more melodic, less driven passages. The Deluxe Reverb’s 22 watts of clean American tube character is the complement to the JCM900’s driven British character.
Vox AC30 (Documented, Clean Chimey Character): A Vox AC30 also appears in his gear documentation — the same clean, chimey British-voiced combo that Dean DeLeo (Series 2 #154) uses as the dry center of his wet/dry/wet rig. Navarro’s AC30 use reflects the same recognition of the AC30’s specific clean character that makes it a go-to complement to higher-gain amplifiers for guitarists who want tonal variety within the same performance context.
Effects
Three Boss DD-3 Digital Delay Pedals (Three Different Functions, Core Sound Architecture): The most distinctive single element of Navarro’s pedalboard — and the piece of gear that most directly explains the specific spatial character of Jane’s Addiction’s guitar sound — is the presence of three Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedals, each set for a different function. The BOSS Behind the Board article (from the “Dan Cleary with Dave Navarro” feature) documents the specific signal chain: “From the guitar, the signal goes into a wah before hitting a BOSS TU-3 Chromatic Tuner, then a BOSS DD-3 Digital Delay. Dave’s got three DD-3s on his board, and this one is specifically for making crazy noises. It’s for special effects, like when he adjusts the delay time by hand or kicks on the Hold mode. That’s his ‘noise’ pedal… Right now, we have that going into a spacey delay/reverb that’s new to the pedalboard, followed by an overdrive, then another DD-3. This is the delay Dave uses a lot for solos. That DD-3 goes into a BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus.”
The three-DD-3 architecture reflects a specific compositional approach: different delay characters serve different functions within a single performance context, switching between them allows specific tonal applications (noise/feedback → spatial lead → rhythmic slapback), and the Boss DD-3’s specific digital delay character (clear, defined repeats with a specific bright quality that differs from the warmer analog echo character) is appropriate for the clear, present, wide-stereo quality of the Jane’s Addiction guitar sound.
Boss CH-1 Super Chorus (Post-Delay Chorus): The Boss CH-1 Super Chorus sits at the end of the delay chain — running after the third DD-3 in the signal path. The CH-1’s specific bright, wide chorus character adds spatial dimension to the post-delay signal, contributing to the overall three-dimensional quality of Navarro’s guitar sound in performance. Chorus after delay produces a different spatial effect from delay after chorus: the chorus acts on the already-delayed signal, widening each repeat spatially, creating a more complex spatial texture than either effect alone.
Dunlop Hendrix Wah (Cry Baby Wah): A Dunlop Cry Baby wah — specifically documented as a Dunlop Hendrix model — is a career constant in Navarro’s signal chain. The wah appears at the beginning of his documented signal chain (“From the guitar, the signal goes into a wah before hitting a BOSS TU-3”) — the standard wah-first position, allowing the wah’s frequency sweep to affect all subsequent processing. The Hendrix Cry Baby’s specific sound and his use of it for both conventional blues-wah lead playing and for the more theatrical, dramatic sweeps appropriate for Jane’s Addiction’s art-rock context are both documented.
Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer (Overdrive, Amp-Pushing Role): An Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer appears in Navarro’s documented rig — used in the specific “pushing the amp” role described in the YouTube Music Sucks rig analysis: “Navarro runs a Tube Screamer-style overdrive — most notably an Ibanez TS808 — into an already-driven amp. The pedal compresses the signal and pushes the amp into tighter, more focused saturation. Set the gain knob low on your overdrive and boost the output level instead.” This is the canonical Tube Screamer application — low gain, boosted volume, pushing the amplifier rather than adding its own distortion character — and its appearance in Navarro’s rig connects him to the same TS808-as-amp-pusher tradition used by SRV, McCready, Cantrell, and many of the other guitarists in this section of the guide.
Boss OC-3 Octave (Documented): A Boss OC-3 Super Octave appears in Navarro’s documented rig from Guitar Geeks — the polyphonic octave generator that adds bass register content (one or two octaves below the guitar’s fundamental pitch) for specific tonal applications.
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner (Utility): The Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner is the first pedal in the documented signal chain after the wah — providing accurate, silent tuning at any point in the performance.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Dave Navarro’s playing style is the most theatrically complete in the alternative rock tradition — a style in which the guitar performance is inseparable from the visual and physical spectacle of performance, in which pinch harmonics, feedback swells, and dramatic timing are as important as note selection. His influences — Hendrix’s psychedelic expansion of the guitar’s sonic vocabulary, Page’s dark compositional complexity, Clapton’s emotional directness — are deployed within the specific dramatic context that Perry Farrell’s art-rock theatrical production creates.
The three-DD-3 pedalboard architecture is the most specific expression of his tone philosophy: different delay characters for different functions, managed in real time by a guitarist who “doesn’t want to scroll through parameters” but does want three separate delay pedals each doing a distinct job simultaneously. This is not contradictory but precise: the simplicity he values is not the simplicity of few pieces of equipment but the simplicity of each piece of equipment having a specific, single, clear function that he can manage directly with his hands. Three Boss DD-3s on the floor in front of him, each with one job, is simpler — in the sense that matters to him — than a single rack-mount multi-effect unit with 500 presets.
His tone philosophy is the theatrical guitarist’s philosophy: the right sound at the right dramatic moment, achieved through a specific combination of equipment that is reliable enough to trust in a live performance context where the specific moment cannot be repeated. “If something goes wrong, I can unplug it and bypass it if I have to” — the floor-pedal approach as resilience, not as technological limitation.
How to Sound Like Dave Navarro
Guitar: A PRS Custom 24 or Dave Navarro Signature PRS with PRS HFS bridge humbucker and Vintage Bass neck humbucker is the authentic starting point. Any high-output dual-humbucker guitar with a Floyd Rose or similar tremolo provides the foundational configuration.
Amp: A Marshall JCM900 (or comparable high-gain Marshall with the naturally scooped midrange character) pushed moderately hard. The scooped mid character of the JCM900 — different from the JCM800’s more forward midrange — is the specific amplifier character that suits Navarro’s approach.
Amp Settings (Marshall JCM900):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Preamp Gain | 6–8 | Driven — JCM900’s natural character at moderate-high gain |
| Bass | 5–6 | Present — dense low end suits Jane’s Addiction arrangements |
| Mid | 4–5 | Scooped — JCM900’s natural mid recession, don’t fight it |
| Treble | 6–7 | Bright — PRS HFS pickup clarity needs treble support |
| Presence | 5–6 | Present — defines the pick attack through the high gain |
Effects: Dunlop Hendrix Cry Baby wah (first in chain, before everything else). Boss TU-3 tuner. Boss DD-3 x1 for noise/special effects (delay time adjusted by hand). Spacey delay/reverb. Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer (gain low, volume boosted) pushing the JCM900. Boss DD-3 x2 for solos (set to your preferred solo echo time). Boss CH-1 Super Chorus (after the solo delay, adding spatial width). If three DD-3s feel excessive: one DD-3 can approximate two of the three functions by using the Boss DD-3’s stereo output for width and the time control for noise effects.
Influence & Legacy
Dave Navarro’s influence on alternative rock guitar is concentrated in the specific aesthetic territory of the theatrical, effects-heavy approach to the guitar as a visual and sonic spectacle simultaneously. Jane’s Addiction’s influence on Lollapalooza (Farrell co-created the festival) and on the broader alternative rock movement of the early 1990s is well-documented; Navarro’s specific guitar vocabulary was absorbed by the generation of guitarists who saw Jane’s Addiction perform in the late 1980s and early 1990s and understood that the guitar could be both technically demanding and theatrically compelling simultaneously.
His connection to Dean DeLeo (Series 2 #154) as a parallel Los Angeles alternative guitarist of the same era reflects the specific character of the LA alternative rock scene in the late 1980s: both musicians developed in the same geographical and temporal context, both found their specific gear combinations in the same period (1990), and both have maintained those rigs with consistency against the industry pressure to update. The parallel is striking — two guitarists who found their sound simultaneously, in the same city, and kept it for thirty-five years.
His Red Hot Chili Peppers period — the replacement of John Frusciante (Series 1) during the One Hot Minute era — is the most discussed period of his career outside Jane’s Addiction. The specific mismatch between his aesthetic (dark, theatrical, effects-heavy) and the Chili Peppers’ funk-rock orientation (rhythmically direct, groove-centered, less theatrically elaborate) produced interesting creative friction but not Navarro’s most realized work. His return to Jane’s Addiction was the return to the specific aesthetic that suits him, and the subsequent decades have produced some of his most consistent and most accomplished guitar work.
Internal Links:
- Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots, Navarro’s parallel LA alternative guitarist who also found his sound in 1990 and kept it at #154
- Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, a contemporary in the early 1990s alternative rock guitar world at #151
- Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, another guitarist who uses the TS808 to push his Marshall amp in the same tradition at #148
- John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose position Navarro held during the One Hot Minute period (Series 1)
Frequently Asked Questions: Dave Navarro Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Dave Navarro play?
Navarro’s primary guitar throughout his career has been the Paul Reed Smith Dave Navarro Signature model — featuring a PRS HFS humbucker in the bridge position and a PRS Vintage Bass pickup in the neck, a combination that has remained unchanged since his early PRS days. He began with PRS after destroying most of his Ibanez RG guitars on tour in the late 1980s and borrowing a PRS from a friend. The PRS SE Dave Navarro (budget version) also exists for accessible entry to his signature configuration. He also uses Ibanez RG models for older Jane’s Addiction material and possesses Kurt Cobain’s Fender Musicmaster, given to him by Courtney Love.
What amplifier does Dave Navarro use?
Navarro’s primary amplifier is the Marshall JCM900 — which he told Guitar Player has been his core amp “since probably 1990.” The JCM900’s naturally scooped midrange character suited the dense, layered guitar arrangements of Jane’s Addiction. His documented setup also includes a Fender Deluxe Reverb for clean contexts and a Vox AC30 for its chimey British-clean character.
Why does Dave Navarro use three Boss DD-3 delay pedals?
Each of Navarro’s three Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedals serves a distinct function, as documented by his guitar tech in the BOSS Behind the Board article. The first DD-3 is his “noise” pedal — used for special effects, with the delay time adjusted by hand for pitch modulation and with the Hold mode for sustaining sounds. The second is the spacey solo delay, set for longer repeats appropriate for his lead playing. The third is used for specific rhythmic echo effects. This three-function approach reflects his philosophy of having specific equipment do specific jobs that he controls directly with his hands.
What is Navarro’s approach to pedals?
“I’m not a gear head or a tech head. I like my stuff to be on the floor in front of me, so I can turn knobs. If something goes wrong, I can unplug it and bypass it if I have to. I don’t want to have a rack of gear that has me scrolling through parameters to get a sound.” Despite having three DD-3s (which might seem complex), his approach is fundamentally floor-pedal-direct: each pedal does one specific thing, he can reach it physically, and he can bypass it instantly if needed. The signal chain: wah → Boss TU-3 tuner → DD-3 (noise) → spacey delay/reverb → Ibanez TS808 overdrive → DD-3 (solo) → Boss CH-1 Super Chorus.
What was Navarro’s time in the Red Hot Chili Peppers?
Navarro joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993 as a replacement for John Frusciante (who had left the band) and remained until 1998, recording one studio album, One Hot Minute (1995). The period coincided with his most severe heroin addiction and was creatively difficult — his dark, theatrical, effects-heavy guitar approach was a significant departure from Frusciante’s more funk-influenced, melodic style. He has spoken candidly about the period’s difficulties in retrospect. He left the band in 1998; Frusciante rejoined; Navarro returned to Jane’s Addiction for the first of multiple reunion periods.
What is the significance of Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction to alternative rock?
Jane’s Addiction was one of the first bands to break out of the Los Angeles underground art-rock scene into mainstream alternative rock consciousness — their Nothing’s Shocking (1988) and Ritual de lo Habitual (1990) albums established the template for art-rock that was simultaneously heavy, psychedelic, and compositionally sophisticated. Perry Farrell co-founded the Lollapalooza festival in 1991, creating the primary touring infrastructure of the 1990s alternative rock commercial explosion. Navarro’s guitar work on those two albums — the specific combination of metal-influenced riffing, psychedelic effects processing, and dramatic dynamics — was the sonic counterpart to Farrell’s theatrical aesthetic.
How did Dave Navarro’s personal tragedy shape his guitar playing?
Navarro’s mother, Constance Hopkins, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend when Navarro was fifteen years old. He has discussed the event and its influence on his music in multiple interviews — the guitar became the specific creative and emotional outlet through which he processed an experience that could not otherwise be processed. “After his mother was murdered when he was 15 years old, Navarro turned to playing guitar as a creative outlet and coping mechanism.” This biographical fact explains the specific emotional intensity of his playing and the specific quality of commitment it contains — the guitar as the place where the most extreme experience becomes manageable.
