Stephen Carpenter (Deftones)
Stephen Carpenter is know for pumping out abrasive, dissonant riffs, as guitarist for the Deftones. His tone is anything but organic, and as you could guess, there’s not a great deal of analogue gear in his line up.
As well as Marshall and Line 6 endorsements, Carpenter also has a number of ESP/LTD signature series guitars, including six string, seven string and baritone models.
Whilst in the late 90’s era he was often seen playing the ESP SC-500,
SC-607 Stephen Carpenter Model or a ESP Horizon. More recently, Carpenter has been using ESP Stef B-7 Signature, ESP Stef T-7 Signature, as well as the recently released ESP Stef B-8 Signature (with a lower F# string).
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Carpenter uses a range of tunings on both the six and seven string guitars, including E, drop D, Drop Db, Drop C on the six string and G and Drop F# on the seven string.
Carpenter uses Ernie Ball .011-.059 gauge strings with Dunlop 1mm Tortex picks.
Carpenter has said that he prefers the versatility rack preamps and poweramps can provide. For much of the 90’s/early 2000’s, Carpenter relied on a Marshall JMP-1 Midi Preamp along with a ADA MP-1 Midi Preamp. These preamps were run through the Marshall 9200 Dual MonoBlock Power Amp. The poweramps were sent to Marshall 1960B 4×12 Straight Cabinets.
Other rack gear included the Rocktron Replifex Multi-FX, Korg DTR-1 Rack Tuner and the Rocktron Patchmate Switcher/Router. His stomp boxes were also rack mounted, and included the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, Boss OC-2 Octave and Boss PN-2 Tremolo Pan. On the floor he relies on the Rocktron All Access midi controller to switch the rack gear.
His more recent amp and effect line up still relies on the Marshall JMP-1 Midi Pre-Amp and Marshall 9200 Dual MonoBlock Power-Amp, however, as you can see in the image below, the ADA MP-1 has made way for a Line 6 POD XT Pro rack unit.
Other new additions include the Rocktron Intellifex, Rocktron RS-10 Custom Audio Controller, TC Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay and TC Electronic Fireworx.
His stomp boxes are rack mounted and switched via the Rockton All Access.
The pedals, as pictured above, from left to right are:
- Top: Boss PS-5 Super Shifter, Boss RV-3 Reverb/Delay, Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, Z.Vex Machine
- Middle: Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth
- Bottom: Boss DD-5 Digital Delay, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Z.Vex Seek Wah, Z.Vex Fuzz Factory, Digitech Whammy(Reissue)
In 2013 Carpenter did a Rig Rundown interview with Premier Guitar. Watch the complete video below.
If you want to listen to some classic Deftones albums, check out Around the Fur
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