A MUSICIAN spoke of his devastation after thieves stole his most prized possession - a rare replica guitar.

Ben Fisher, 39, was house sitting for a friend in Chalk End, Pitsea, when the Fender 53 Relic Telecaster was snatched.

He returned after a day out to find the front door had been left open.

Mr Fisher was horrified to discover that burglars had taken the guitar and its bag, which also contained his laptop.

Mr Fisher, a professional musician who plays in a band called Jenny Wren and Her Borrowed Wings, said the guitar was his most prized instrument.

He said: “As I am a musician, I have a couple of guitars but this one in particular was special.

“Everything about it was perfect - the look, the way it sounded and the way it felt.

“I could use it in any musical situation.

“It’s a reissue of the 1953 guitar. It was the guitar I’d always wanted since I was little but at the time you could only get the original ones, which are worth about £50,000.

“Then they started reissuing them.

“What has made it more upsetting is that the people who have got it, don’t realise what they have got.”

Mr Fisher, of Great Oxcroft, Laindon, said he has felt miserable since the guitar was stolen.

He said: “I have never been broken into before and you have people saying that it’s like you have been violated, which it is.

“The fact that they have stolen my laptop was terrible enough because it had songs that I had written, that I will just never get back.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “Police are appealing for information about a rare guitar, stolen in a burglary in Chalk End, Pitsea on Friday, March 25.

“The guitar is of extremely high sentimental value to the victim and officers are keen to return it to him. A laptop was also stolen.

“Two men, aged 31 and 29, both from Pitsea, were arrested in connection with this incident and have been released on police bail until Friday, July 1.”

Anyone who has been offered to buy the guitar or has information can contact Det Sgt Mike Wilkinson at Basildon CID on 101.