OME! // The Emppu Vuorinen Fanlisting

Biography / Biografia

Erno "Emppu" Matti Juhani Vuorinen, born June 24, 1978 in Kitee, Finland, is the lead guitarist of the Finnish symphonic metal band 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, when Marco Hietala eases 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, because he stands at only 5'5" (165 cm) in height.

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 two custom-made purple and white ESP Horizon, the ESP EV-1 with Seymour Duncan pickups (TB-5 in the bridge, SHR-1n in the middle and a SH-2n in the neck), with a black ESP Eclipse Custom, which he used for the music video to Nightwish's Amaranth. His current main amplifiers are Mesa Boogie Rectifiers with Marshall speaker cabinets.

And as for some random facts about Emppu, which I claim no credibility for: Emppu's height is optimal. Wikipedia claims he's 5'3" (161 cm), which is also the popular belief, while IMDB claims he's 5'5" (165 cm). Well, unless Emppu decides to grace us with his wisdom himself, your guess is as good as mine. Besides, leaving behind a little mystery is nice, don't you think?

And for fangirls and even fanboys who care to know, I believe that although he's not married, Emppu is already taken. He had a girlfriend named Mervi once, and I think his current girlfriend is Maarit (She's on the summer 2006 Nightwish Video Blog, if you're that curious). I may be wrong, but that's as far as I know and want to know. Let the man keep his personal affairs to himself and leave us to marvel at everything else about him! ;)