Dragonforce guitarist, Herman Li, talks us through his gear list.

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Guitar and amplifier

Ibanez E-GEN18 (£2,499)

"I do all this crazy stuff – like the whammy bar and other tricks – onstage, so I need a guitar that's easy to play, light and looks cool. The wood is mahogany because it's the only wood that can give the guitar a big sound without being heavy and thick."

DiMarzio HLM pickups

"These pickups were designed with me and DiMarzio. There are nine different combinations of pickup switching so you can get Strat sounds all the way to heavy metal sounds, and clean sounds to deal with the new songs on Ultra Beatdown."

Peavey JSX cabs (£649 EACH)

"These have incredible tone. No matter how fast we play or how busy the stage is, my tone always cuts through. The direct output is so good, my FOH engineer doesn't bother putting mics in front of the cabs."

Effects pedals

Rocktron Prophecy II (£1,675)

"This preamp has all my lead sounds, my rhythm sounds, all the delay sounds – all the effects. Everything is named and there are different patches for different songs. I've been sitting there for the last two years programming it!"

Hot Hand effects (£315)

"The main sound I use this 'hand expression [motion controlled] ring' for is the wah wah – the most famous is in the video Heroes Of Our Time. Your hand can move faster than your foot to make the effect, and it looks cool too!"

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