The first guitar rock legend Jimi Hendrix ever burnt is up for auction later this year.

The scorched 1965 Fender Stratocaster is expected to fetch #500 000 when auctioned at the Idea Gallery in east London in September.

Famously set alight at the Finsbury Astoria in north London in 1967, the guitar was found last year by the nephew of Hendrix's press officer, Tony Garland. Garland ? who was sent out to buy the lighter Hendrix used to ignite the guitar ? stored the instrument in his parents' East Essex garage after roadies had picked it up.

The Stratocaster will form the centrepiece of the auction, which will also include the only intact drum kit of the late, great John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, as well as a book of poetry by the legendary Jim Morrison, frontman for The Doors.

Ted Owen of The Fame Bureau ? who will be auctioning the guitar ? said: "We can only find evidence of Hendrix definitely burning two guitars."

The second 'fire show' was at California's Monterey Rock Festival later that same year. However that guitar is said to have been completely destroyed in the blaze.