Jimi Hendrix‘s 1965 Fender Stratocaster, the first guitar the musician famously set on fire is expected to fetch in the region of £500,000 ($1 million) when it goes under the hammer at auction in London on September 4, 2008.
The guitar, burnt at Hendrix’s gig at London’s Finsbury Astoria on March 31, 1967, was found only last year by his original press officer Tony Garland’s nephew. It had been kept in the house of Jimi Hendrix Experience bass player Noel Redding, before being moved to the garage of Garland’s parents.
The Fender Strat, still fully intact, has visible flame scorches on the neck and pickboard.
Hendrix also set his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival the same year, but the Astoria Fender is the only one to have survived.
The auction, which will take place at the Idea Generation Gallery near London’s Liverpool street will also see several other special rock’n’roll items sold.
The sale includes the last surviving Ludwig drumkit which belonged to late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. The five-piece kit is the only Bonham-owned intstrument to exist outside the family estate and is estimated at £20, 000.
Jim Morrison‘s final 20 page notebook of poetry from Paris from 1971 is also up for sale. The book contains lyrics and musings and was given to a friend just before his death. The spiral notebook is expected to go for between £80,000 and £100, 000.