Top 10 Museums for Guitar Lovers
Oct 11th 2023
Top 10 Museums for Guitar Lovers
We love learning about guitars, and we know our customers do, too. There are a lot of great museums that showcase the fantastic history of guitars and the people who played them. Strings and Beyond has picked out 10 of the best guitar museums you should visit to discover its many stories.
If you’re in the mood to play afterward — and who wouldn’t be — check out our huge collection of guitar strings. You might even find the strings used on the guitars you just saw!
Songbirds Guitar and Pop Culture Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee
One of the largest museums dedicated almost solely to guitars, Songbirds houses roughly 550 vintage axes and examines how they shaped American popular culture. It also features exhibits highlighting the importance of the Chattanooga music scene and the science of guitars. Located in Terminal Station of the Choo Choo Campus historic district, the building contains a live music venue featuring performances from up-and-coming artists, and they provide free online resources to learn the guitar.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio
While the induction process has been shrouded in controversy almost since it opened in 1995, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame still delivers for fans of rock music and guitar history. The pyramid-shaped building features an assortment of permanent and rotating exhibits, including the Legends of Rock on level five. There, you can see guitars and other artifacts from quintessential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Feel like playing a few chords? Grab an instrument in The Garage on level two.
C.F. Martin & Company Museum, Nazareth, Pennsylvania
You don’t have to play Martin guitars to appreciate their significance. The C.F. Martin & Co. Museum is an awe-inspiring tribute to America’s first guitar maker. More than 100 guitars are on display, including the first Martin guitar, the earliest Dreadnoughts, Kurt Cobain’s D-18 and various milestone guitars. Other exhibits include their ukeleles and mandolins along with the tools used to build guitars over the last centuries. Admission is free, and virtual online tours are available, too.
Guitars the Museum, Umeå, Sweden
Over time, twin brothers Samuel and Mikael Ahden put together the world’s largest collection of rare 1950s and 1960s guitars, with estimates putting the collection’s current value at over $10 million. When Guitars the Museum opened in 2014, the world got to learn about it. More than 500 vintage guitars are on display, including the 1958 Gibson Flying V and 1954 Fender Stratocaster — which they still play! The museum is operated by a music store and rock club in the same building.
Delta Blues Museum, Clarksdale, Mississippi
There are several notable music museums in Mississippi, including the GRAMMY Museum. But the Delta Blues Museum should be the first stop for guitarists. It celebrates legends such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Big Joe Williams who shaped the unmistakable delta blues sound. Among other things, you can see the guitars and instruments they played. If you can’t make it to Mississippi, they offer more than 20 “virtual tours” that you can watch online.
National GUITAR Museum, U.S. Touring
This ‘traveling museum” celebrates the guitar’s history and cultural impact through a series of exhibitions, including “America at the Crossroads: The GUITAR and a Changing Nation” and “Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the GUITAR.” The National GUITAR Museum has appeared at more than 50 venues, including history, art and science museums. The Board of Advisors includes legendary guitarists like Steve Vai and Ritchie Blackmore. Exhibits typically last two to four months, so look for them coming to an area near you.
The Royal College of Music Museum, London, England
Have you ever wanted to see the earliest known guitar? You can at the Royal College of Music Museum — along with more than 15,000 other musical artifacts plus performances and masterclasses. In addition to said guitar (circa 1581), their collection includes many other guitars and related instruments from the 16th to the 20th centuries, painting a broad picture of its rich history. Best of all, the museum is free to visit! (Though you will have to pay to get to London.)
The GIG at Belmont, Nashville, TN
The next time you’re near the Belmont University campus, check out the Gallery of Iconic Guitars. Steven Kern Shaw, the son of a band leader and grandson of a composer, amassed a collection of 500 rare guitars and mandolins. When he died in 2015, he left it all to the university, and they created the GIG to let people see the instruments up close. Ongoing exhibits include “Acoustic Guitar Body Styles” tracking the instrument’s evolution as well as “Maker Exhibits” of Martin, Fender and Gibson guitars.
Hollywood RockWalk at Guitar Center, Los Angeles, California
Sunset Boulevard is home to Guitar Center’s flagship store, and the pedestrian sidewalk out front is a free mini-museum of rock ‘n’ roll’s greats. It has inducted more than 150 honorees, each of whom has a signed and handprinted concrete block — think of it as rock’s answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to guitarists and bands, the RockWalk recognizes equipment innovators like Les Paul and Jim Marshall. The East Wall also has bronze plaques for many of the inductees.
Tamworth National Guitar Museum, Tamworth, Australia
The U.S. isn’t the only country with a National Guitar Museum! It features an array of guitars from local and international artists, including guitars signed by Paul Stanley, The Eagles, Dolly Parton, Keith Urban and Kenny Rogers. The museum also has the original “rifle guitar” played by Smoky Dawson (Australia’s version of Roy Rogers). It’s in the same complex as the Big Golden Guitar, a 39-foot-tall statue based on the trophies handed out at Australia’s Country Music Awards.