Stephen Carpenter playing guitar with Fluence pickups on stage

Stephen is a player’s player, preferring to concentrate more on his music than equipment. “I was never the super-critical guy, I’m not much for specs, but I like clean, full sounding pickups. When I was first starting out, I was using a passive, overwound humbucker. And in 2000, when I started playing 7-string, I used the actives that most people used at the time because they worked fine. Simple as that.”

Stephen Carpenter playing guitar with Fluence pickups on stage

“I was introduced to Fluence by my guitar tech and I’m like, ‘I have been offered my own models multiple times and they never really came to fruition,’ but we put Fluence in and I jammed on them for 45 minutes and thought… ‘these things are freaking great.’ I didn’t want to stop playing. Playing Voice 2 was like going back to my original overwound passives, which ironically are some of the same pickups that were used in creating the sounds for the Fluence.”

Fluence Signature Series Stephen Carpenter Pickup Voicings:

  • Voice 1: “Like the original Modern Fluence sound that I love, but tweaked a bit in the midrange.”
  • Voice 2: “This is my custom voicing with some tone and gain tweaks to give it that extra heat and edge.”
front view of Fluence Signature Series Stephen Carpenter 7-String pickup

Straight from Stephen Carpenter:

Stephen Carpenter

My signature pickup set has the full range of tones that you’re looking for. Voice 1 is similar to the tone of the original Modern Humbucker Fluence set. And for the second voice, I like a bit more heat, some hot stuff on it… more edge, so that’s in there too.

Stephen Carpenter

Deftones

Fluence Signature Series Stephen Carpenter Pickup Set Includes:

  • Glow-in-the-dark stripe on the front
  • 1 ceramic pickup (bridge position) and 1 alnico pickup (neck or middle position)
  • All components required to achieve Stephen’s wiring scheme (minus pickup selector)
  • Volume and Tone pots
  • Push-pull Voice Selector pot for use in Volume or Tone position
  • All wiring required for installation

 

Fluence Signature Series Stephen Carpenter Pickups:

  • Are Multi-Voice. Set and forget, or wire-up to toggle between musically complimentary voices.
  • Drop right in and replace standard humbucker pickups.
  • Are rechargeable on your guitar. Optional lithium-ion battery pack offers weeks, not hours, of playing time.

Specifications

Alnico Pickups Ceramic Pickups

PEAK FREQUENCY

Voice 1: 630 Hz, Voice 2: 550 Hz / 8 kHz Voice 1: 750 Hz, Voice 2: 1.4 kHz

MAGNETIC MATERIAL

Alnico V Ceramic VIII

MAGNETIC CIRCUIT

Bar magnets with blades Bar magnets with blades

OUTPUT IMPEDANCE

2k 2k

CURRENT DRAW

2.5 mA 3 mA

BATTERY

9-Volt or optional rechargeable battery pack 9-Volt or optional rechargeable battery pack

BATTERY LIFE

Up to 90 hours (for the set) Up to 90 hours (for the set)