Steve Farris

Back in the mid 80's on back, Charvel was a CUSTOM builder of guitars, and their main model was called the "San Dimas" - after their home time (San Dimas California). Back then, the San Dimas was not a actual set model, and most performing artists had their own custom versions of said guitars - Steve Farris, a session guy, and lead guitarist for Mr. Mister - was no exception.

Steve's model of Charvel San Dimas was an ash bodied vintage-style Stratocaster with a "strat-head" maple neck, Floyd Rose locking Vibrato, rails style humbuckers in the neck and middle positions, and a Humbucker at the bridge. Little is known about these guitars. These were what he appeared to used through most of his time in Mr. Mister. He had at least 2 of these, one in more of a transparent blonde color, and the other in Sienna Sunburst.

Steve used the BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal Pedal on Broken Wings and some other songs on 1985's "Welcome to the Real World" album.

Postby markmod » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:58 pm Hey Guys,

Steve is a pal of mine and I thought I could give you some information. Yes, he recently moved to Nashville, and he goes back and forth to Nebraska, where he owns a hunting preserve. Steve is an avid hunter and sportsman.

His early Mr. Mister rig consisted of Jim Kelley and Dumble combos, split into stereo via a modified BOSS CE-1, with a Korg rack delay into the FX loop of the Dumble. A BOSS HM-2 (Heavy Metal) pedal was used on "Broken Wings," among other Mr. songs. This was all before his first Bradshaw rack. Steve mentioned that his big influence during the Mr. Mister years was guitarist, Jamie Oram-West of the FIXX. All those splashy, effected, and compressed chords came from that influence.

Some years ago, I did a couple of tech jobs for Steve when he played out around Los Angeles. He had a small rack with pedals (fulltone stuff, a red snapper, among other things) through a modified Bogner Shiva head and 4X12 cab. His guitars were usually a white reissue Strat and a reissue goldtop Les Paul. Switching was done via Bradshaw 2X4 and RS-10 MK II.

His studio rig is another story, he uses a larger rack and multiple heads and cabinets. Steve is pretty secretive of his set-up and doesn't give up much information. However, I have seen it many times and have played through it. Out of respect for Steve's wishes, I will not give up any of that info, just the older rigs I can discuss. Thanks for understanding. Last edited by markmod on Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

A guy that knows Steve on this forum says He used a CE-1 Chorus Ensemble on the early Mr. Mister recordings in the mid 80's.

Postby markmod » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:58 pm Hey Guys,

Steve is a pal of mine and I thought I could give you some information. Yes, he recently moved to Nashville, and he goes back and forth to Nebraska, where he owns a hunting preserve. Steve is an avid hunter and sportsman.

His early Mr. Mister rig consisted of Jim Kelley and Dumble combos, split into stereo via a modified BOSS CE-1, with a Korg rack delay into the FX loop of the Dumble. A BOSS HM-2 (Heavy Metal) pedal was used on "Broken Wings," among other Mr. songs. This was all before his first Bradshaw rack. Steve mentioned that his big influence during the Mr. Mister years was guitarist, Jamie Oram-West of the FIXX. All those splashy, effected, and compressed chords came from that influence.

Some years ago, I did a couple of tech jobs for Steve when he played out around Los Angeles. He had a small rack with pedals (fulltone stuff, a red snapper, among other things) through a modified Bogner Shiva head and 4X12 cab. His guitars were usually a white reissue Strat and a reissue goldtop Les Paul. Switching was done via Bradshaw 2X4 and RS-10 MK II.

His studio rig is another story, he uses a larger rack and multiple heads and cabinets. Steve is pretty secretive of his set-up and doesn't give up much information. However, I have seen it many times and have played through it. Out of respect for Steve's wishes, I will not give up any of that info, just the older rigs I can discuss. Thanks for understanding. Last edited by markmod on Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

Steve can be seen with this guitar in this picture on his Facebook page.

In this video chat with Steve on YouTube, at the 24:23 time mark, he mentions using a Goodrich volume pedal.

In this guitar article from December 1986, a Floyd Rose Original tremolo can be seen on Steve's Charvel guitar.

In this interview from Guitarist magazine, volume 2 number 11, April 1986 Steve says,

“I’ve got four amps. I use an old 50 watt Marshall, I use a Howard Dumble amp, which is a great amp. Those two don’t go on the road though, they’re like special, one of a kind things. I’ve got a Jim Kelly amp as well, which is great, and I’ve got a Fender Twin reverb amp that I got off Paul Rivera. Paul’s a really nice guy and really brilliant. He’s done a lot of work for me and he actually re-wacked the whole thing. In fact, he was in England and he picked up some special English parts – English transformers and some valves – and he converted it all to a lot of English stuff that he liked. It’s really good now.
 Those are the four amps I use, plus I even have a Super Champ, which I use for certain things, because there are so many applications. But all my amps are unusual, real customized, except for my Marshall – I think I only had one little mod done to that, but nothing drastic.“

In a video interview hosted by Tone-Talk titled "Ep. 45 - Steve Farris of Mr. Mister on Tone-Talk! Interview! Kiss, Van Halen, Whitesnake!", guitarist Steve Farris confirms his use of a 1959 Fender Stratocaster at the 3:11 timestamp.

In this Guitar World interview published January 5th 2024 Steve was asked,

What were the first solos and riffs you learned?

“Solos came later and riffs came first. I had a cheap little Kay guitar that was my mother’s, and probably cost $5! This thing had strings like the size of telephone cables and about an inch off the fretboard, so I had trouble playing them.

“I started lessons a few years after I saw The Beatles, so in fourth grade, that's where I learned my first songs. It would have been whatever was on the radio. One tune I recall was called Stick Shift by The Duals, and I also learned the beginning of Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers.”

In a 2010 YouTube video by Andrew Rozario titled "Steve Farris - Aqua Strat," Steve Farris can be seen holding a Valley Arts Custom Pro Guitar with an aqua finish. This provides evidence of his use of this specific guitar model.

In a YouTube video by Andrew Rozario titled "Steve Farris - Black Strat," Steve Farris is shown using a Valley Arts Custom Pro guitar. He explicitly mentions that it is a "custom pro guitar" at the beginning of the video, and it features a black finish with a white pickguard.

In an interview originally conducted in April 1986 for "Guitarist" magazine, volume 2 number 11, Steve Farris discussed his use of various effects units, including the Yamaha E1010, stating, "I have a YE 1010 and a Korg 3000 DDL, not a Roland, a Korg, and I think it sounds great. It's real warm, perfect for what I'm using it for." This information is sourced from an interview with Geoff Twigg on the website hugeracksinc.com, credited to HRI // The Archives and authored by marsa.

Steve Farris is mentioned as using the Seymour Duncan SH-4/TB-4 JB Model pickup in the article "Seymour Duncan JB – The JBJ Era" by Darth Phineas.

In a guitar article from December 1986, the Seymour Duncan Cool Rails neck pickup is visibly installed in the neck position of Steve Farris' Charvel guitar.

On the original Soldano order form, Steve purchased unit 29.