Stephen "Stef" Carpenter (born August 3, 1970) is an American musician, known as the co-founder and lead guitarist of the rock band Deftones. His guitar technique makes use of both ringing open strings and dissonant chord voicings, as well as stock power chords in poly-rhythms. Carpenter began his musical career with Deftones playing the traditional six-string guitar. After becoming influenced by such bands as Fear Factory and Meshuggah, he began playing a seven-string guitar in the late 1990s. After Deftones' third album White Pony, subsequent releases would be written with seven-strings, until 2010's Diamond Eyes and 2012's Koi No Yokan, which were written with an eight-string guitar. Carpenter was ranked 60th in Guitar World's The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists poll.