As long as I can remember I've been fascinated with guitars. From strumming my older cousin's Fender Stratocaster while he was out doing chores to dreaming of owning a C.F. Martin dreadnought like the ones I'd see on TV shows I have always been drawn to this instrument.

And no wonder. It's the central figure in music from country to rock to classical, from Buddy Holly to Stevie Ray Vaughn and everything in between.

Now the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin has a special display just for us guitar fanatics, GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked the World.

The display opened on May 19th and will run through August 15th. Created by the National GUITAR Museum in New York the exhibit features more than 60 guitars and 100 artifacts tracing the guitar from the 1800s on through to today's highly developed models. There will also be video performances, a luthier's workbench, even x-ray images of the inner workings of the instrument.

HP Newquist, the Executive Directer and Founder of the National GUITAR Museum said,

The guitar is the most enduring icon in American history. It has been around longer than baseball, basketball, soft drinks, and sports cars. This exhibition is a celebration of all that, and more.

The "more" would be the world's largest playable guitar, a replica of Gibson's 1967 Flying V created by students at the Academy of Science and Technology in The Woodland, Texas. This monster is 43 feet, 7 1/2 inches long, 16 feet, 5 1/2 inches wide, and weighs as much as a Mini Cooper. It was certified by Guinness World Records in both 2001 and 2017.

Here's a glimpse of the exhibit and world's largest guitar when it was on display in Peoria, Illinois.

The Bullock Texas State History Museum is located at 1800 Congress Avenue, just down the street from the Texas State Capital in Austin.

But don't worry if you can't make the road trip to check out the exhibit, there's an online presentation Tuesday evening, May 26th, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and it's free. Just go to the Bullock Museum's website and sign up. You'll get an email with a link you can use to Zoom in to the presentation.

Electric guitar on case with orange lighting.
Zoonar RF / ThinkStock
loading...

From sweet Strats and twangy Teles to thundering Les Pauls and Flying Vs and all different sizes and shapes of acoustic instruments, GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked the World sounds like the perfect exhibit for any music fan.

LOOK: What are the odds that these 50 totally random events will happen to you?

Stacker took the guesswork out of 50 random events to determine just how likely they are to actually happen. They sourced their information from government statistics, scientific articles, and other primary documents. Keep reading to find out why expectant parents shouldn't count on due dates -- and why you should be more worried about dying on your birthday than living to 100 years old.

More From 92.9 NiN