Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter recalls his guitar tone as “garbage” during the Koi No Yokan album era, despite the compliments he received about his sound at the time.
Released in 2012, Koi No Yokan features popular tracks like “Rosemary,” “Tempest,” and “Swerve City.” Although Carpenter emphasizes he isn’t criticizing any specific gear brand from that period, he does remember facing challenges with his Fractal Axe-Fx.
In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, Carpenter describes his initial experiences with the equipment: “I went through some learning curves, as everyone does. There were a few instances where I had programmed a lot of settings, only to have them wiped out after updating the unit while on tour.”
He continues, “I thought, ‘What the?! I’ll never do that again.’ And it happened twice. The second time, I was like, ‘That’s it.’ Despite the struggles, I’m grateful we got through it. Everyone pushed through, even though my guitar sound was, at that time, garbage.”
Carpenter adds, “I was personally dissatisfied with it, but I kept receiving compliments after shows, with people saying, ‘That sounded so sick,’ and so on. Then, one day, a small adjustment made all the difference in how I used the equipment.”
He explains that most of his issues stemmed from the effects blocks in the unit. “My rig has always been mono, with at least two cabinets, set up left and right, even though I didn’t consciously think much about it,” he says.
“I’ve always used a mono-mono setup, so despite having two cabinets, they both carried the same signal. It only became stereo when I added a stereo effect. During that time, when I was setting up new patches, I included a stereo cab block that split the signal, giving it a wider stereo effect. To me, it sounded hollow.”
