Marty Friedman to Auction Guitars, Donate Proceeds to Japan

Through a series of posts on his Facebook page, Marty Friedman has announced that he'll be auctioning all of his Megadeth-era guitars and donating all the proceeds to fund the tsunami relief efforts in Japan.

Friedman was a member of Megadeth from 1990 to 2000, and recorded five studio albums with the band, including the classic Rust in Peace.

Friedman currently lives in Tokyo, where he continues to write music. He also frequently contributes to Japanese magazines, and appears as a personality on TV shows.

Here's an excerpt of Friedman's Facebook posting:

"Thank you all for your support and prayers. I am 100% fine, 100% healthy and in better shape than ever. However, there are many, many people here in Japan that are facing an unbelievable tragedy. Its`s time to go to the next step. I will be auctioning ALL of my guitars from the Megadeth era and will donate 100% of the proceeds to the earthquake relief.

"I am going to LA right NOW to the climate controlled lockup where all the guitars have been in their cases since January 2000. All guitars I used on all the Megadeth recordings, tours, videos, everything WILL be auctioned off. When I get to the lockup I will do my best to sort out which was used for what ( I suck at that...I`m sure many of you guys know better than I do) and notate as many details as possible.

"Pictures, descriptions and how to bid will all be up on my US website as well as my Japanese website within 2-3 days. I have NEVER sold ANY of my guitars before, this is the only way these guitars will leave my possession. I urge you to please spread the word and most of all BID HIGH. You will be putting a huge deposit in the `karma bank` as and have some pretty cool guitars to show for it. DO IT!"