Stephen Carpenter

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Stephen Carpenter
Background information
Born	August 3, 1973 (age 33) USA
Genre(s)	Alternative metal
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1988 - present
Associated acts	Deftones
Notable instrument(s)
One of Carpenter's ESP signature series guitars: STEF-B7 Baritone guitar

Stephen Carpenter, (born August 3, 1973) is a US musician, the lead guitarist and occasional multi-instrumentalist in Deftones.

When Carpenter was younger, he was hit by a drunk driver who broke both his legs, and was confined to a wheelchair. The insurance settlement as a result of this ended up in his favor and he acquired a large sum of money at the age of 18. By December of that year, he had invested all of which into himself. He had bought enough guitar equipment to begin his dream of playing on a consistent basis. He has stated that his favorite heavy metal band is Meshuggah. Some of this can be heard in the Deftones more aggressive songs like "Elite" or "Hexagram". Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Faith No More are some more of his metal influences, but he also draws influence from Depeche Mode and Led Zeppelin, which can be heard on more subdued tracks. Carpenter has a side project called Kush, featuring Christian and Raymond from Fear Factory and B-Real from Cypress Hill. Carpenter also recently formed a second side project called Sol Invicto that is described as metal meets drum and bass. Stephen does guitars, FX, and production, alongside Eric Bobo of Cypress Hill on percussion and drums, and Rich from Cultura Londres (A Latin Hip Hop group from the UK) on production and guitar. A release date for this project is unknown, and no music of theirs is currently available as it is still in the writing process. Their myspace is in the "top" group on Stephen Carpenter's myspace.

Stephen is also a multi-instrumentalist. Stephen has been known to play second keyboards alongside Frank Delgado when the Deftones perform their song Beware (formerly known as Beware the Water) from their Saturday Night Wrist CD. He switches to distorted bass guitar once the song's ending begins. He also contributed keyboards and ambience textures with Frank Delgado on the song "Teenager" from the White Pony album, and plays second bass on the song "Xerces" from the Saturday Night Wrist album. Also, in multiple interviews he has disclosed that he plays drums on the instrumental track "u,d,u,d,l,r,l,r,a,b,a,b,select,start" from the Saturday Night Wrist album, and also drums on the track "Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event" from the Deftones' self titled album.

Carpenter is currently endorsed by ESP Guitars, Marshall Amplifiers, and Line 6. He has a number of ESP/LTD signature models in production, both in six, seven string and baritone models. His guitar technique makes use of both ringing open strings and dissonant chord voicings and stock power chords.

Deftones
Chino Moreno | Stephen Carpenter | Abe Cunningham | Chi Cheng | Frank Delgado
Discography
Albums: Adrenaline | Around the Fur | White Pony | Deftones | Saturday Night Wrist
Singles: 7 Words | Bored | My Own Summer (Shove It) | Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) | Change (In the House of Flies) | Back to School (Mini Maggit) | Digital Bath | Minerva | Hexagram | Hole in the Earth | Mein