Chi Cheng (musician)

Chi Cheng Birth name Chi Ling Dai Cheng Born July 5, 1970(1970-07-05) (age 37)
Stockton, California Genre(s)Experimental rock
Alternative metal
Trip-hopOccupation(s) Bassist Instrument(s)Bass guitarYears active 1988-present Label(s)Warner Music
Maverick RecordsAssociated acts Deftones

Chi Cheng, (born July 15, 1970) is an American musician, the bass guitarist in the rock band Deftones.

1 Personal life
2 Equipment
3 Discography
- 3.1 With Deftones
4 Trivia
5 External links

Personal life

Cheng holds a BA in English Literature from UC Davis and is the only member of the band with such an accomplishment. He is the author of a collection of poetry entitled The Bamboo Parachute released in 2000 as a spoken word album.

He is also a practicing Buddhist, and maintains an interest in Taoism and Shamanism.

Cheng also sponsors a community service group based out of the band's hometown of Sacramento, California. The group aids homeless citizens in developing their musical talents, among other things.

Cheng is also a vegetarian. During college, he read No Denial by Neil Cohen and decided to make the switch. Some of the Deftones' lyrics can be interpreted to reflect this practice. Many songs make reference to animals or the consumption of meat, implicitly portraying the practice in a bad light. Cheng also is an active supporter of PETA. The song "Elite" on White Pony repeats "when you're ripe you'll bleed out of control." This perhaps describes, in a criticizing manner, the way in which animals are treated in meat packing plants.

Equipment

Chi Cheng exclusively uses Fender Basses. On tour, Cheng uses around 5 or 6 basses. His main basses are two 59' Fender Precision Bass Reissues, made by Alex Perez of the Fender Custom Shop. Cheng has about 20 Fender Precision Basses of recent vintage, each of them has stock double-humbucker pickups which are all passive. Cheng also uses a Fender Telecaster Bass tuned in EADG, for Adrenaline songs. Currently, Chi uses two 300-watt, all-tube Ampeg SVT 2 Pro Heads, two Ampeg 8x10 Cabinets and a rack-mounted Tech 21 SansAmp PSA-1 for extra distortion. He also uses a Boss OD-3 OverDrive and Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble pedals. Cheng uses heavy-gauge (.065-.120) Fender strings on his basses. Although he generally perfers to stick to four strings, Cheng acknowledges that he pulled out a couple of Fender 5-Strings during the making of Deftones.