Stephen Carpenter

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Stephen Carpenter

Background information
Born August 3, 1970 (1970-08-03) (age 37)
U.S.
Genre(s) Alternative metal, Heavy metal
Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter
Instrument(s) Guitar
Years active 1988 - present
Associated acts Deftones, Kush, Sol Invicto
Notable instrument(s)
ESP STEF B-7

Stephen Carpenter, (born August 3, 1970) is an American musician, the lead guitarist and occasional multi-instrumentalist in Deftones. His guitar technique makes use of both ringing open strings and dissonant chord voicings and stock power chords.

Carpenter recently formed a side project called Sol Invicto that is described as metal meets drum & bass. Stephen does guitars alongside Eric Bobo Correa of Cypress Hill on percussion, Richie Londres from the C.L.P Cultura Londres Proyecto on production and AJ Cookson (Medes) and recently Hella drummer Zach Hill. A release date for this project is set for 2008, they have two tracks done now, called "unidose" featuring Stephen playing lead guitar/solos, & "Carrion". Their myspace is in the "top" group on Stephen Carpenter's myspace.

Stephen's bandmate in Sol Invicto, Richie Londres, had the following to say about Stephen's playing in Sol Invicto on the message board of the Deftones' website "Just a start my friend, all new tracks are built around Steph's guitar tracks rather than adding to already made D&B tracks, but for real it is working musically! Steph's thrown down loads of lead shit and shredding! We got a lot to work with!"

Meshuggah, 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 another side project called Kush, featuring Christian and Raymond from Fear Factory and B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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 uses a 5-string bass in the song Needles and Pins on their 2003 self-titled album. 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.

Speaking on material from Saturday Night Wrist, he stated: "I personally wish it was more aggressive."[1]

His relationship with Deftones lead singer and bandmate Chino Moreno has been recorded as being fraught at times. Apparently, recording of Saturday Night Wrist was protracted due to their "warfare".[2] With regards to musical tastes, Saturday Night Wrist being described as "more aggressive" equated to it being "more aggressive for him [Chino]"; Carpenter said he'd "definitely be glad to take it to the next level, but that's asking too much right now."[1]

Contents

[edit] Equipment

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. Carpenter will also soon be using a new 8-String guitar built for him by ESP featuring a lower F# string. Carpenter currently uses Ernie Ball .011-.059 gauge strings. He also uses Dunlop 1 mm Tortex picks which are black with a custom logo.

On tour, Carpenter takes about 10 guitars. He uses 5 main guitars, and the rest are back-ups for all the different tunings. Carpenter has a range of different guitar tunings, including E, drop D, Drop Db, Drop C on the six string and G and Drop F# on the seven string.

Here is a list of some of the equipment Stephen Carpenter has used throughout his career:

[edit] Guitars

  • ESP Stef B-7 Signature
  • ESP Stef B-8 Signature
  • ESP Stef T-7 Signature
  • ESP Stephen Carpenter Signature
  • LTD SC-607
  • LTD SC-200
  • Various ESP & LTD Models

[edit] Amplifiers & Effects

  • Marshall 1960B 4x12 Cabinets (x4)
  • Marshall JMP-1 Midi Pre-Amp
  • Marshall 9200 Dual MonoBlock Power-Amp
  • Line 6 PODxt Pro
  • Rocktron Intellifex
  • Rocktron RS-10 Custom Audio Controller
  • TC Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay
  • TC Electronic Fireworx
  • Behringer Intelligate Noise Gate
  • Korg DTR-1 Rack Tuner
  • Digitech Whammy
  • Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synthesizer
  • Z.Vex Fuzz Factory
  • Z.Vex Seek Wah
  • Z.Vex Machine
  • Boss RV-3 Digital Delay
  • Boss OC-2 Octave
  • Boss PN-2 Tremolo
  • Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Deftones

[edit] With Sol Invicto

  • Unidose (2008, Altered Beats.)
  • Carrion (2008 Altered Beats.)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Ailes, Drew (2006-03-27). Deftones interview. Lambgoat. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  2. ^ Barr, Greg (2003-07-31). Korn Shuckers. Houston Press. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Deftones
Chino Moreno · Stephen Carpenter · Abe Cunningham · Chi Cheng · Frank Delgado
Albums
Singles
Other releases
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