Dave Navarro

Dave Navarro is the guitarist of Jane's Addiction, with a career that also includes six-string duties for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Jane's Addiction spin-off projects Deconstruction and The Panic Channel, and a solo career¹. His pedalboard is unusual among players of his stature in one way: it is built almost entirely from stock BOSS pedals that any guitarist can buy off the shelf². His guitar tech, Dan Cleary, has looked after the rig for over a decade², and much of the gear has been with him since Jane's Addiction's Ritual de lo Habitual tour almost three decades ago².

Navarro has used BOSS pedals since the '80s¹, and as Cleary puts it, "Since day one, Dave's been a Boss guy"³. BOSS has made compact pedals since 1977⁴, and Navarro's board is a working demonstration of that line: three DD-3 Digital Delays, two CH-1 Super Chorus units and one TU-3 Chromatic Tuner¹, plus a Jimi Hendrix Wah².

The Jane's Addiction pedalboard

The board most associated with Navarro is his main Jane's Addiction pedalboard, built around 2008-2009, close to when Cleary first came on board officially³. The core of it has stayed the same for years: the three Boss DD-3 units and two Super Chorus boxes are, in Cleary's words, "Navarro's true longtime workhorses"³.

Navarro tours with two duplicate pedalboards so that a failure on stage never costs a show¹. The build has proven durable in practice: Cleary began Jane's Addiction's 2024 European tour by breaking a van with Navarro's pedalboard, and the BOSS pedals were fine¹. Cleary's confidence in the setup is straightforward:

That repairability is the practical argument for a stock-pedal board: nothing on it is a one-off, and every unit is replaceable anywhere in the world²¹.

The clean chain: CH-1 Super Chorus and DD-3

Navarro's pedalboard is split into a "clean" top chain and a "dirty" bottom chain, and each chain carries its own DD-3 Digital Delay and CH-1 Super Chorus side by side¹. The clean chain runs a CH-1 with almost the same settings as the dirty channel, and another DD-3 set to a different delay time¹.

Both clean-chain pedals stay on. Dave's cleans always have a little delay and chorus, to get what Cleary calls "that ethereal jangly sound he loves"³. For songs like "Three Days" and "Then She Did," he uses two Super Choruses and two Digital Delays together for a clean tone, with the DD-3 delay times set differently¹.

On the dirty chain, the pairing is his solo sound. When he goes for a guitar solo, he will often step on the DD-3 and Super Chorus at the same time¹. The DD-3 also carries whole songs: he uses one throughout virtually all of "Three Days," with the heavy chugging part the only section where he does not use it¹.

The delay time that never changes

Two details of Navarro's delay setup define his sound. First, the delay time is set by ear against a specific reference: he always sets it to the beginning part of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" to check it is correct¹. Second, the setting does not move from there, whatever the song:

Of the three DD-3s, the bottom left one is his main delay, and that setting never changes³.

The noise DD-3: Hold mode and hand-tweaking

The third DD-3 has a completely different job. This one is specifically for making crazy noises: special effects, like when Navarro adjusts the delay time by hand or kicks on the Hold mode¹. It is the DD-3 that sits by the wah, and unlike the main delay he is free to tweak its settings in real time³. Cleary describes the purpose bluntly:

So the three DD-3s divide cleanly: a main delay with a frozen setting, a clean-chain delay at a different time, and an effects box he manipulates live¹³.

Around the pedals: amps and guitars

The pedals sit inside a two-amp rig. Navarro travels with one Marshall for his dirt channel and goes into a Fender for cleans, blending the two². The Marshalls are JCM 900s that have been in his rig since 1990, modded for more low end in the signal². Once the amps are set, almost nothing changes from night to night: the only setting he and Cleary ever adjust is presence, depending on the room or the stage².

On guitar, he plays mainly black guitars after Cleary found him a black PRS one-off nicknamed "Lucille"². The wah on his board is a Jimi Hendrix Wah², and Hendrix is his favorite guitar player, which Cleary calls an obvious choice³.

FAQ

What chorus pedal does Dave Navarro use?

The BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus, two of them, one in each chain¹. The clean-chain unit runs with almost the same settings as the dirty-chain one, and both chains pair the chorus with a DD-3¹.

Why does Dave Navarro use three DD-3 delays?

Each DD-3 has its own role: the bottom left one is his main delay with a setting that never changes, another serves the clean chain at a different delay time, and the third is a noise and special-effects pedal he tweaks live¹³.

How does Dave Navarro use the DD-3 Hold mode?

Hold mode lives on the noise DD-3, the one by his wah. He kicks it on, and adjusts the delay time by hand, for the special-effects sounds his tech describes as crazy noises¹³.

Are Dave Navarro's chorus and delay always on?

On the clean chain, yes: his cleans always have a little delay and chorus³. On the dirty chain, he steps on the DD-3 and Super Chorus together for solos rather than leaving them on throughout¹.

Questions