“I'm just going to use them as they were built from the factory”: Deftones' Stephen Carpenter admits he prefers amp modeler factory presets to his own tone creations

Deftones co-founder and lead guitarist Stephen Carpenter's guitar tone has been pored over and emulated by many a fan. However, Carpenter has recently revealed his hot take on factory presets – and teased the tones we can expect on the band's highly-anticipated upcoming album.

“I actually have an Axe-Fx in my rig, right, but I'm married to it because I used it on the Koi [No Yokan, Deftones' seventh studio album] record – I use four or five different factory presets on songs. There's no way I'm gonna achieve those effects with anything else,” he says on the Rock Feed Podcast.

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“They are what they are. They came out of that machine, designed by those designers. I have to use that piece of equipment to accomplish what I used it for, and with this [upcoming] record, I haven't used a lot of effects at all this time around.”

However, Carpenter admits that these days, if he needs to use effects, he prefers the practicality of factory presets.

“My position has been [that] if I'm going to use effects, they're the effects that are actually inside of the [Line 6] Helix, because it's already there. And I'm just going to use them as they were built from the factory. Should that device fail me anywhere, at minimum, I can go grab a new one from somewhere, turn it on, and the sounds are just right there.”

Sadly, Carpenter doesn't name his preferred patches, so you'll just have to get exploring.

In terms of the yet-unnamed new album, Carpenter says that he had the time and capacity to experiment and use all the amps he's accumulated over the past decade – and he's fallen back in love with tubes.

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“When we got into the studio to actually work, it was my turn to do guitars. Over the past, let's just say 10 years, I've acquired amplifiers along the way, different heads and all that. On this record, I actually gotta bust all these amps out doing the guitars. I've got this reinvigorated love for an actual tube amplifier. There is something about that that is undeniable. It just can't be beat.

“I live in a world of both digital and analog and they both have a role and they're both amazing. And when used together properly, great satisfaction can be achieved.”