No Headstock, More Tubes: Inside Stephen Carpenter's Gear Shift on Deftones' Private Music

For almost 30 years, Stephen "Stef" Carpenter has had one of the most recognisable guitar sounds in heavy music. Those huge, low, swirling Deftones riffs, the ones half the 7-string players in town have tried to nail at a jam studio at least once, came from a fairly steady setup: ESP guitars and, for a long stretch, a Fractal Axe-Fx.

Then came Private Music (Reprise, 2025). For this record, Stef changed the two things he had relied on for decades: the guitar and the amp. He walked into the studio with headless guitars and a pile of tube amps he had been collecting for about ten years.

The twist? He never left ESP. And one Deftones album still physically needs it. Here's the story, what it says about how working musicians choose gear, and how you can chase that sound yourself.

Nearly 30 Years With ESP (And He's Not Going Anywhere)

Stef's relationship with ESP goes back nearly three decades. It's one of the longest artist partnerships in modern heavy guitar, and it shaped the Deftones sound as much as any riff did. His signature ESP LTD SCT-607B Stephen Carpenter 7-String Baritone sums up his whole approach. It's a long-scale baritone with seven strings, built for the low tunings and wide, heavy chords his playing lives in. For players who want to go even lower, there's the ESP LTD SC-608 Stephen Carpenter 8-String Baritone.

So when photos of Stef with a headless guitar from another builder started going round, a lot of people assumed it was a breakup. It wasn't. In his own words: "I wasn't trying to get with a different guitar company." In April 2023 he added a second brand to his rig and stayed with ESP.

If you've been playing long enough, you know the feeling. You don't swap out the guitar that built your sound. You add a new tool when the old one can't do a specific job.

If you want the real deal, the top of the tree is Stef's Japan-made ESP Original signature line, built to the specs he actually plays. The ESP Original STEF-B7 7-String is the core of it, and it also comes as the single-humbucker STEF-B7 1HUM in Purple Satin. If you want the baritone version, there's the ESP Original STEF-T7B 7-String Baritone. And for extended range at full strength, there's the ESP Original STEF-B8 8-String. These aren't tribute guitars. They're the same family of instruments Stef plays on stage.

New to ESP's line-up? See What's The Difference Between ESP's Brands.

He Just Wanted No Headstock

The reason for the change was simple. "I decided I really wanted a headless guitar, and ESP doesn't make one," Stef explained. So he went to a builder who did, and walked into the Private Music sessions with headless guitars in hand.

If you've never played a headless guitar, here's why players get hooked. Without a headstock, the guitar is shorter and lighter, and the weight sits closer to your body, so there's no neck dive. The strings are anchored at both ends and you tune at the bridge. That's a big deal on extended-range guitars, where a long scale and a big headstock can make an instrument feel like a plank on a strap after a two-hour set.

But here's the catch, and it's a great lesson for anyone thinking of switching. Stef says most songs work on either guitar. Not White Pony. On that album he plays the strings past the nut and behind the bridge, and a headless guitar has neither. So for those songs, the ESP comes back out, a traditional headstock guitar like his signature ESP Original STEF-B7.

Before you go headless, take an honest look at your own playing. If any of your signature sounds come from that dead string space, keep a traditional guitar in the rotation.

The Axe-Fx Convert Who Went Back to Tubes

Stef was an early Fractal Axe-Fx user, back before modelling became the norm for working guitarists. So his return to tubes on Private Music surprised a lot of people. He says the trouble started on tour, and it wasn't about tone on paper: "It's not an audio thing... it was just the way it feels."

If you want to understand what kept him on Fractal for so long, today's line-up runs from the flagship Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III MkII Turbo to the floor-based FM9 Mk II Turbo, the compact FM3 Mk II Turbo and the entry-level AM4.

For the album he hauled in amps he'd been collecting for about a decade, from Bogner, Fryette, Orange, Diezel and Soldano among others. His reasoning is one of the best one-liners about gear you'll hear:

"A tube amp is alive, just as you are."

Play the same family of amps

You can plug into that same family of amps in the showroom. There's the legendary Soldano SLO-100 Super Lead Overdrive and its more manageable sibling, the Soldano Astro-20, plus the UK-made Orange AD30H and Orange OR30 tube heads. For bedroom and studio volumes, the Bogner Ecstasy Mini and Diezel VH Micro put those voicings in a lunchbox head.

If you want several of Stef's amp flavours in one rig, Synergy preamp modules like the Synergy Fryette Deliverance, Synergy Bogner Uberschall and Synergy Diezel VH4 slot into a tube chassis like the Synergy SYN-5050.

Feel, not a verdict

Don't read this as "modellers bad, tubes good." A modeller like the Axe-Fx still wins on consistency, recall, touring logistics and silent practice, which is why so many pros run them every night.

The real point is feel. Stef spent years with both and picked the one that responded the way he plays right now. The only honest way to know which camp you're in is to play both through the same guitar, back to back.

Go deeper: Tube vs Solid-State vs Modelling Amps · All You Need To Know: Soldano SLO-100 · All You Need To Know: Fractal Audio.

Shop The Gear at Music Bliss

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Stephen Carpenter signature ESP

• ESP Original STEF-B7 7-String — Black (MIJ)
• ESP Original STEF-B7 1HUM 7-String — Purple Satin (MIJ)
• ESP Original STEF-T7B 7-String Baritone — Black (MIJ)
• ESP Original STEF-B8 8-String — Black (MIJ)
• ESP LTD SCT-607B 7-String Baritone — Black
• ESP LTD SC-608 8-String Baritone — Yellow

Tube amp heads

• Soldano SLO-100 Super Lead Overdrive
• Soldano Astro-20
• Orange AD30H
• Orange OR30
• Bogner Ecstasy Mini
• Diezel VH Micro

Synergy modular tube rig

• Synergy Fryette Deliverance preamp module
• Synergy Bogner Uberschall preamp module
• Synergy Diezel VH4 preamp module
• Synergy SYN-5050 2 x 50-watt tube power amp

Fractal Audio modellers

• Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III MkII Turbo
• Fractal Audio FM9 Mk II Turbo
• Fractal Audio FM3 Mk II Turbo
• Fractal Audio AM4

About the author

Iqmal

Iqmal is part of the Music Bliss team, writing about guitars, amps and the artists behind the sounds — and the gear on our showroom floor that gets you there.