Kai Hansen’s KH-40T:
two of my Pumpkins on a very special guitar
Kai Hansen's guitars have evolved quite a bit over the decades. In his early days, he was playing relatively affordable guitars, including Marathon models, long before the custom instruments associated with him today. As his career developed, so did his approach to guitars: after using various Gibson, Fender and other instruments, he eventually found a long-term partner in ESP, beginning with Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys era. From there, his familiar Randy Rhoads-inspired ESP designs became increasingly personalised, eventually leading to fully custom-built instruments made specifically around his playing style and requirements. Today, guitars such as the custom Viv Guitars models and the EBG KH-40T represent the other end of that journey: instruments designed not simply as guitars, but as very personal tools and visual extensions of Kai Hansen himself.
Some guitars are more than instruments.
They are pieces of musical history.
The KH-40T Kai Hansen Anniversary, built by German luthier EBG-Instruments, was created specifically for Kai Hansen and Helloween’s 2025/2026 40th Anniversary World Tour. It is a highly customised R-shaped guitar, featuring numerous references to Helloween and Gamma Ray. EBG-Instruments describes it as 100% identical to Kai’s original instrument.
But what caught my attention immediately was something rather more personal: two of my original Pumpkin drawings are reproduced on the back of the guitar. I created these Pumpkin characters for Helloween many years ago, during my long collaboration with the band. Over the years, the drawings appeared in many different forms, from albums and singles artwork to merchandise and various promotional material.
An amusing detail about the use of these two specific little pumpkins is that the one on the left is the very last drawing I did for Helloween for the cover of the Japanese edition of "Pumpkin Box" released in 1998 and the one on the right is the very first drawing I did for the band (in 1986) "Pumpkin Straight Out Of The Garden" used among other things to illustrate the inner sleeve of Keeper Of The Seven Keys (Part 1) released in 1987.
I certainly never imagined that some of them would eventually end up on the back of a guitar designed for Kai Hansen's 40th anniversary with Helloween.
And that is what makes seeing the KH-40T particularly special to me. The drawings are no longer simply illustrations associated with a particular period of the band's history. They have become part of an actual instrument that is being taken on stage again, decades later.
There is something quite satisfying about seeing artwork created with pen and ink in the 1980s finding a new life on a modern, high-end guitar.
A guitar full of Helloween details
The Pumpkins on the back are only part of the visual story. The guitar features Helloween Pumpkin details on the Schaller Lockmeister tremolo, custom Helloween inlays on the ebony fingerboard, Helloween and Gamma Ray logos on the gold Hipshot locking tuners, and Kai Hansen's characteristic “Eye Face” logo airbrushed onto the mahogany body.
Technically, the KH-40T is equally impressive, with a mahogany body and five-stripe maple/mahogany neck, EMG 81 and EMG 89R pickups with split function, 22 frets, a 25.5-inch scale and a Schaller Lockmeister tremolo. The finished guitar weighs around 3.6 kg.
But for me, the most interesting detail remains those two little Pumpkins on the back. The very first one from 1986 and the very last one from 1998.
They travelled a very long way.
From a quick drawing on a sheet of paper, to Helloween artwork, and finally onto Kai Hansen's anniversary guitar, ready to be played on stage in front of a new generation of fans.
Not bad for these two little Pumpkins.
