The History of The Big Playable Guitar
The Big Playable Guitar is on display at the Narrandera Visitors Centre, Narrandera, New South Wales. Once a Guinness World Record holder, it is the biggest playable guitar in Australia.
The oversized playable guitar was built by Robert Palmer, a Narrandera Country Music Association member, in 1988. The reason behind its construction was to promote the region’s country music. He used plywood for the construction, a project that took over 300 hours to complete.
In 1991, the impressive measurements of the Big Playable Guitar earned it a spot in the Guinness World record as the World’s Largest Playable Guitar. It held the title for nine years before a team of students and their teacher at the Academy of Science and Technology in Conroe, Texas, claimed a new record after creating another huge playable guitar.
The Texas guitar almost doubled the size of Australia’s Big Playable Guitar; however, many Australians are still proud of being the first to have such a title.
Here are some of the specs that earned the Big Playable Guitar in Narrandera a place in the Guinness World Record before losing the title to its rival in Texas.
- It measures 5.82 metres in length
- Its body is 2.02 metres wide
- The guitar’s neck measures 1.47 metres wide
- It has a depth of 0.63 metres
- The sound hole is 0.5 metres wide
- The guitar strings are 3.98 metres long
Visitors at the Narrandera Visitors Centre are always fascinated by the Big Playable Guitar. Many take photos with it, while others try to play a tune on the Big Guitar. Practically, it needs at least two guitarists to play this huge bass guitar.
New South Wales is also home to another enormous Big Guitar structure. The Big Golden Guitar in Tamworth sits outside the Longyard Hotel. Although not playable, the big Golden Guitar is also another Big Thing that celebrates country music in the region.
