Gigantar sculpture (Illinois Rock and Roll Museum)

A 24-foot guitar hangs on the front of a downtown Joliet museum on Route 66. Gigantar was made by sculptor Shannon MacDonald for the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 at 9 W. Cass St. The Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway announced its arrival in February 2023 under the headline "the world's largest hand sculpted guitar"; the claim is the byway's own.

The Herald-News reported in 2023 that the museum's executive director said the inner structure is commercial aluminum, which keeps the weight to about 1,600 pounds rather than the roughly 16,000 a steel frame might need, and that the outside is hand-sculpted sheet metal. He also said it is built to the scale of a real guitar, with the frets where they belong. Funding is described differently: the byway credits a $1.5 million state Route 66 grant to Heritage Corridor Destinations, while the museum director said a $90,000 state grant helped and that the project cost well over $100,000. The sculpture needed approval from Joliet's Historic Preservation Commission and a variance for a sign of its size, and material shortages delayed it. It was due to set out from the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in mid-January 2023 and reached Joliet that month, and a lighting ceremony at the museum was planned for January 20 of that year.