Kai Hansen

Helloween's founding guitarist and original vocalist, and the player most responsible for the sound European power metal settled on. Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I is effectively his record -- co-guitarist Michael Weikath was ill through most of the 1987 sessions and unable to play, so Hansen tracked the bulk of the album himself. His rig from that period has stayed remarkably consistent: a Marshall 1987 50-watt head modified at purchase to add a master volume and advance the gain stage, a Marshall 4x12 loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s, a Maxon OD808 he describes as the best tube screamer for a vintage Marshall sound, and a Boss graphic EQ in front that he calls essential rather than optional. He played a red Rockinger in the Rhoads shape from the first Keeper album and kept a late-1970s Flying V with a Seymour Duncan JB for solos and overdubs. He left Helloween in 1989 to form Gamma Ray.