Career
He also played bass on Wintersun"s first album before hiring a full-time line-up. Before forming Wintersun, Mäenpää was best known for his time in the folk metal band Ensiferum, which he joined in 1996 after leaving his prior band named Immemorial. Wintersun was initially planned as a parallel project alongside Ensiferum, but in January, 2004 he was forced to leave Ensiferum due to clashes between their touring schedule and the studio recording time he had booked for Wintersun.
In 1997, Mäenpää had to put his musical career on hold to take part in Finland"s compulsory military service.
In an interview, Mäenpää admitted he disliked the time he spent in the military and suspects it"s where he acquired tuberculosis. Jari"s style of guitar playing utilizes tremolo-picked melodies and phrases and the heavy use of extremely fast sweep-picking solos and breaks as heard on most of the songs.
The speed of Wintersun"s music is due in part to the use of blast beats and quick, spacey keyboard lines. This gives the guitar a charging, power metal feel for the most part.
Tokai Telecaster
Ibanez RGD(25½ scale)Custom
Ibanez RGD(26½ scale)Prototype
Ibanez JEM
Ibanez PGM301
Jackson DR3 with Electromyography
Mesa Boogie Mark V
Mesa Boogie Triaxis Pre Amplifiers
Peavey 5150
Fractal Audio Axe-Forex World War II