On April 21, a trove of rock memorabilia will be on the block in New York City at an auction benefiting Music Rising, a charity co-founded by U2's The Edge to replace equipment lost by musicians during Hurricane Katrina.

Despite the quality on display--a signed Epiphone guitar from Coldplay; a Telecaster used by Bob Dylan; a pair of black and white zig-zag striped pants worn on stage by KISS' Gene Simmons (and, we presume, subsequently laundered); The Edge's own beloved 1975 Gibson Les Paul--the star of the show is a 1966 Red Fender Mustang (right) that Jimi Hendrix played on both "Axis: Bold as Love" and "Electric Lady Land." The guitar is expected to fetch upward of $100,000.

The highest price ever paid for an electric guitar was $2.8 million in 2005 for an Arctic White Fender Stratocaster autographed by a host of guitar giants including Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Brian May, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, David Gilmour, Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Mark Knopfler, and AC/DC's mad schoolboy, Angus Young. Hendrix, of course, ranks higher than all of them when it comes to fretwork, having been tagged a few years ago as Rolling Stone's "greatest guitarist of all time"--in which case, a hundred grand starts to sound like a steal.

-- ANDREW NUSCA