Giant guitar greets Lake Tahoe visitors at new Hard Rock casino in Stateline

It's not every day you see a 2,200 pound, 26-foot tall guitar being driven along Highway 50 from Sacramento into South Lake Tahoe. Nor does one normally see a huge crane lifting a metal guitar over 100 feet to be placed onto a base in front of a South Shore casino.

Douglas High Graduate Terrence Martin and his team, Todd Schulze and Courtney Cardenas, were busy installing the guitar last week. Many people were passing by, stopping to ask the metal artist questions and taking photos of what will soon be the talk of the town and the subject of many photos.

The guitar is part of the giant props associated with the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe at Stateline, set to open Jan. 28. It turns out that the Martin, a former Gardnerville resident, graduated high school in 1986 with Jon Park, who with his brother David now own the building that will house the Hard Rock (David was a in a different graduating class).

Since the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency wouldn't let the Hard Rock place it's normal monstrous neon guitar on the outside of their new home, something else had to be done. The Parks told Hard Rock they knew just the person to create a guitar monument style structure but the corporation wasn't buying the idea. Martin heard about the situation and created an eight foot high version of the guitar, carted it up to South Lake Tahoe from his Sacramento studio, placed it inside the hotel lobby during a management team meeting and left.
His plan worked and people are talking.

The guitar is going to have some great features that will surely attract many a visitor seeking a selfie or other photo. The structure is meant to be moved, so if you want a photo with a different angle, you can just adjust the guitar. It will be lit from inside and lit from the base which will be made of recycled windshields that will appear to be the color of the lake. Since TRPA asked them to not have the normally restricted uplighting, Martin and his crew created the windshield lighting.

Since there will be a lot of movement and touching, the guitar was overbuilt and is structurally sound to survive any seismic and wind activity it might endure.

For those that are DIY Network fans, Martin, Schulze and Cardenas may not be strangers. They've appeared on DIY's House Crashers, Yard Core and Yard Crashers as well as Bath Crashers. Martin has signed a development deal with HGTV (House and Garden Television) for a TV show. Since Hard Rock has already approached the metal artist to create a guitar for their Sioux Falls location, Martin is going to suggest they create a reality show around their making guitars for Hard Rock and traveling the country to install them. But that is just one idea so you'll be sure to see the group again soon.

Martin said it was great being back home. His works takes him on the road often so he said its nice to make it back to Tahoe. He installed a metal whale in the new Deer Creek Village in Petaluma where there is seating for eight inside the whale.

Another piece of sculpture he is very proud of was a gift to the Rose Bowl from the Big 10 and Pac 12 in honor of the parade and game's 100th anniversary.

Meanwhile, instead of a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony, the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on the South Shore will celebrate with a grand ice guitar smashing.

On Jan. 28 at 7:45 p.m., the new resort at the remodeled Horizon location is inviting the public to help them officially open their doors in grand style on the patio of the Fire Break Kitchen & Bar restaurant. Executives from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe, Warner Hospitality, the Las Vegas-based gaming and resort management company that manages the property; the Park family, owners of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe, and local and state officials will be present. The program will include remarks from property executives and dignitaries and the guitar smashing.

There will be a free concert that evening at 9 p.m. with Mojo Green, one of the west coast’s premier funk and soul bands, playing at the Vinyl lounge.