Standing over 80 feet tall and 20 feet wide, the Hard Rock Café Las Vegas signage was first erected when the property opened in September 1990. It is the flagship guitar in the Hard Rock Café franchise and the first to be designed after a particular musician’s guitar, based on the design of legendary guitarist Pete Townshend’s personal Gibson Les Paul Deluxe with cherry sunburst finish. Part of the property’s appeal that endured throughout the decades were its unique entertainment offerings, such as high-profile concerts at its music venues and innovative beach clubs.
The property closed in 2016 and the guitar signage was dissembled the following year. It sat in storage until 2019, when a crowd-funding campaign succeeded in relocating the sign to The Neon Museum, its current home, where it was subsequently reassembled and refurbished. The signage consists of over 4,100 feet of neon tubing, with over 700 individual neon units. Among the colors represented on the sign are Ruby Red, Clear Read, 3500K White, and Yellow Gold II.
Donors who made the Hard Rock Café guitar restoration possible: