Emppu Vuorinen

Emppu Vuorinen
Background information Birth name Erno Matti Juhani Vuorinen Born June 24, 1978(1978-06-24) (age 29) Origin Kitee, Finland Genre(s)Symphonic metal, power metalOccupation(s) Lead guitarist Instrument(s)Guitar Associated acts Nightwish, Brother FiretribeNotable instrument(s) Washburn Guitars
ESP Guitars

Erno “Emppu” Matti Juhani Vuorinen (born June 24, 1978 in Kitee, Finland) is a Finnish guitarist, mostly famous as a member of symphonic power metal quintet Nightwish. He started to play guitar as a private study at the age of 12 and since then he has played in various bands including Nightwish, of which he is a founding member, Brother Firetribe and Altaria.

Emppu most often supports the keyboard or orchestral parts of Nightwish songs, Marco Hietala easing back to allow the higher pitched guitar of Emppu to take precedence. Vuorinen's solo techniques include short range tapping and minor to extreme, whammy bar use for vibrato.

Vuorinen is often referred to as "The short one" when amongst Nightwish members, as well as his other projects, standing at only 5'5" (165cm) in height.

As of 2006 one of his side-projects Brother Firetribe released their debut album, "False Metal", in Finland.

Equipment

Vuorinen originally used Washburn guitars for earlier albums (WASHBURN CS-780: white and purple guitars with golden hardware) but he has recently endorsed ESP Guitars. He currently uses a custom made ESP Horizon, the ESP EV-1 with Seymour Duncan pickups (TB-5 in the bridge, SHR-1n in the middle and an SH-2n in the neck), 1 in purple and 1 in white, along with an ESP Eclipse in Vintage Black, which he used for the music video to Nightwish's Amaranth and Bye Bye Beautiful.

His current main amplifiers are Mesa Boogie Rectifiers with Marshall speaker cabinets.

After seeing that the infamous purple guitar had suddenly gone and with many fans voicing their concerns, Vuorinen answered this question from David from Canada:

“ Is it true that you changed your guitar for a Les Paul to fit more with Anette’s heavy voice? „

—David

“ The thing is that when we went to LA, [where the videos were shot] I forgot my guitar at home so I had to run to the nearest local guitar store to buy an ESP Eclipse. So the answer is: No! „

—Vuorinen