Guitar stolen during benefit concert

While the Hoobastank benefit concert was sold out and most people who attended the show agreed that the band couldn’t have performed better, not everyone was totally happy.

Dan Estrin, the band’s lead guitarist from Calabasas, reported that his $3,500 Paul Reed Smith guitar was stolen from The Canyon stage, following the band’s sound check earlier in the evening.

"I had used it for sound check and once sound check was over I put it back in my guitar boat where my other guitars were, and our entire crew walked off the stage and went to the dining room to go get some dinner," Estrin said. "In the time frame of a half-hour or 45 minutes, somebody had walked up on stage, grabbed it and left with it."

The Canyon’s owner, Lance Sterling, said the doors had just opened to the public, but that none of the club’s 16 surveillance cameras showed a person leaving the stage or the building with the guitar.

Sterling thinks somebody might have stashed the instrument in one of the road cases that are used to take guitars in and out of the club.

"If someone has a road case that holds 62 guitars and someone slides it in there, I can’t see that on tape because all I see is a road case coming out," Sterling said. "All the guitars left the building in their road cases. . . it’s not something you can just put under your shirt."

Estrin, who was recently featured in Guitar One magazine, said that while Paul Reed Smith provides him with sponsored equipment, the stolen guitar was one that he purchased with his own money before the band became successful.

The theft left him frustrated.

"We did everything possible to help out," Estrin said. "Playing shows is how we make our living and we did not make a cent that night. That’s what bothers me … I had an amazing time playing that night, but I think someone should take responsibility," Estrin said.

Charity officials said they offered to pay Estrin back for the loss of his guitar.