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Vagn R. Nissen,
born in rockin' 67 in Denmark, has played the guitar
since the age of around 12. Begging for a drum kit, Vagn's parents
finally settled for a guitar as they believed this would make less
noise. Reckon what? It didn't!
Soon joining various band like Kevas and Suntime, Vagn then formed the group Miss Credit with the famous Danish singer John Thrane Nielsen and a couple of other friends. Due to personal logistics he later drifted on to bands like Universe, Steven Hunter Band, Iznogood, Booby Trap and 5Bugs. Ending up in Munich he finally formed the present international lineup HardCopy with some skilled colleagues. Vagn plays a number of different guitars including several 70s Gibson Flying Vs, a PRS Custom 24, a Parker Fly Classic and an Andreas Fierce Shark to name a few; but he is certainly favouring the hand built Egholm VRN models built by Danish master luthier Peter Egholm to the personal specifications of Vagn (special thanx to Peter). Being somewhat of a gear freak Vagn owns a heap of amps and effects. Ampwise, a Soldano X99 and a Mesa Boogie TriAxis are currently entrusted with the job of creating the main live sounds while Mesa Boogie 2:90 delivers the power for two Marshall 4x12 cabs with vintage G12H-30 and G12M respectively. Around this basic setup various vintage preamps like the H&K Cream Machine or the Roland GP-8 are often employed for more complex tonalities. The sounds are flavoured using various effects generated by units such as the TC Electronic G-Force or vintage/boutique stompboxes controlled by a Rocktron Patchmate/All Access. Recently Vagn has invented an analog yet MIDI-controllable 19" rack wah unit named the VRN MIDIwah. This unit was developped in cooperation with and is presently produced by the fantastic MIDI Gadgets Boutique (MGB) in Varna, Bulgaria (Thanx to Jordan & Emil!). Nevertheless, sometimes a simple setup like a direct taken Koch Pedaltone or a small Gallien-Krueger 250ML with a RAT or a couple of BOSS pedals is just the right thing.... Among the musical influences having had an impact on Vagn count the classic 80s hard and heavy bands like Judas Priest, Saxon, Van Halen and Iron Maiden. Although neither the talent nor the practicing diligence is comparable to these by far, also artists like Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Steve Morse and Satriani have served as massive inspiration. Nevertheless, Vagn generally listens to everything between Toto/Bryan Adams on the soft side to Iron Maiden/Metallica on the harder side with Magnum as an all time favourite.
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