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Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant has opened up about the band’s final performance with original guitarist Gary Rossington, noting how things had felt extra “special” that night.

The show, held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in late 2022, was part of the Southern rock legends’ 50th anniversary celebrations. It would also mark Rossington’s last time onstage with the band before his passing a few months later.

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Speaking in a new interview with WHDAFM, Van Zant reflects on the emotions and energy of that night – and the grit Rossington showed just by being there.

“He was very sick the week before that, and then he called me up,” Van Zant recalls [Ultimate Guitar]. “Called me up and said, ‘Hey Bubba, I might have to sit down.’ And I said, ‘Well, hell, I’ll sit down! Whatever we need to do.’ And he came in, stood up, he said, ‘I ain’t sitting down.’ So he was just a war horse. He loved playing that music.”

“And I knew that night was special. I was having a great time. Things were awesome. Sometimes you get to a gig, and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh well, okay, it’s just another gig.’ But then you get there and you feel that presence, y’know? And that was one of those nights.”

The singer also looks back fondly on a nostalgic moment he shared with the band backstage before the show began: “It was funny because myself, [Rickey] Medlocke, my brother Donnie, and Gary all shared a little dressing room in the back, and we were stepping over each other’s luggage and [sharing] past stories, you know, things that we can’t talk about, that only us guys were talking about,” he says.

“And somebody brought us a cold pizza, and we’re like, ‘Yeah man, we’re starving!’ So we’re in there, we’re eating pizza. And we started laughing. We said, ‘You know what? This is kind of like the old days in the clubs.’”

Now, that night lives on in Celebrating 50 Years – Live at the Ryman Auditorium, a concert album and DVD set due out later this month. The release features Skynyrd revisiting its classic catalogue with the help of guest artists including Marcus King, Jelly Roll, Donnie Van Zant, Jon Osborne, and Shinedown’s Brent Smith.

Van Zant says that he’s grateful the performance was documented – not just for the fans, but as a personal tribute to Rossington’s legacy.

“Little did we know that was going to be Gary’s last performance. I’m so proud that we actually videotaped this and had it on film,” he says. “And we got a great documentary for your listeners and our fans that we put together. It’s pretty much a tribute to Gary, and it’s just all of us talking about him, talking about the night.”

The post “He came in, stood up, and said, ‘I ain’t sitting down”: Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman recalls guitarist Gary Rossington’s final performance appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the explosion of online tutorials, social media shredders and AI-assisted everything, it’s never been easier to pick up an instrument – or look like you’ve mastered one.

While Level 42 bassist Mark King argues that the “standard of musicianship amongst young musicians is higher now than it’s ever been” thanks to the internet, metal icon Lita Ford says that there’s more to becoming a real musician than just mastering guitar tabs off YouTube.

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In a recent chat with The Horror Nerd, the former Runaways guitarist was asked what advice she would give a young, up-and-coming musician hoping to break into the industry today. Her answer? Ditch the online tutorials and start jamming with real people instead.

“Well, it’s a hard piece of advice, because it’s really more than just a piece,” Ford explains [via Blabbermouth]. “Things are so different now in 2025, and the digital world has kind of taken over everything. And I didn’t come from that world.”

According to Ford, there’s no replacement for learning the old-school way.

“So it’s good to be a little bit of a street gutter rat and get out there and jam with people and go to some nightclubs and listen to your favourite musicians and learn as much as you can from them instead of Googling it or watching it on YouTube or whatever,” she says.

“‘Oh, I can Google the guitar chords to my favorite song.’ But that doesn’t mean you know how to play it. It comes from the heart and soul, and those kinds of things don’t teach you a lot of that,” Ford adds. “So it’s good to just be a street rat and a gutter rat and get out there and get down and dirty and sweat and play guitar and play drums and sing your ass off. It helps.”

For Ford, the digital world might offer convenience, but it can’t beat the hard-earned lessons of playing live, grinding through mistakes, and finding your voice in front of real people.

“There’s a lot of things that have changed over the world, through the decades, but that’s how I learned,” says the guitarist. “And if I had to give anybody a piece of advice – and it’s a hard way, it’s not the easy way, but it is the way, when you learn how to feel and everything, the music in your heart and soul. That’s what does it for me.”

Ford is far from alone in thinking so. Artists like Lenny Kravitz have emphasised the importance of “feel, dynamics and emotion” over technique, while Pete Townshend has pointed out what many Instagram guitarists are missing: real-world playing experience with their peers.

The post “It’s good to be a little bit of a street gutter rat”: Lita Ford advises young players to do this instead of “Google guitar chords” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$279/£269, strymon.net

If you’re a pedal enthusiast, Strymon is a name you’ll know intimately well… hell even if you’re not, you probably recognise the company’s distinctive enclosures and may well have one or two on your ‘board.

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Because over the last decade or so the brand has become the standard bearer of quality time-based digital effects, if you want a brilliant sounding reverb or delay pedal, you can’t go wrong with a Strymon.

Increasingly, too, Strymon pedals have become a little more accessible. Starting with 2023’s Cloudburst, the brand has been experimenting with a smaller and more affordable form factor. Now, that tiny enclosure has seemingly come for the El Capistan – Strymon’s flagship tape echo pedal. Taking one of the onboard modes and squeezing it into the EC-1, is it a worthy Strymon purchase, or should you save up for the big boy?

Strymon EC-1 – what is it?

At first glance, it might be easy to think of the EC-1 as an El Capistan in a new slim enclosure. But I used the word ‘seemingly’ above quite deliberately, because this isn’t simply an El Cap algorithm in a smaller box. Strymon claims the EC-1 was in fact built new from the ground up (like the Cloudburst) to sound like a modded version of the iconic Echoplex EP-2 tape delay.

I’d also be very shocked if, like the Cloudburst with the BigSky MX, the EC-1 doesn’t end up as one of the new modes on the inevitable TimeLine MX whenever that arrives, but for now it’s unique to this pedal.

The EC-1 also offers a choice of two authentically reproduced preamp circuits that Strymon says will add a bit of vintage character to your input signal (though I’ll let your ears be the judge). One is based on a classic EP-2 tube preamp, ideal for brightening up your tone, while the other is based on a Cesar Diaz–modded EP-2 preamp circuit, adding a bit more warmth to your sound.

Another key difference from its bigger sibling is the addition of the Record Level control. The three-way Record Level toggle switch offers a clever means of tailoring the gain structure of the signal hitting the virtual record head.

In the low position, the circuit operates at unity gain with finely tuned biasing, delivering the cleanest, most transparent repeats your signal could ask for. Flip to medium, and you’re granted a tasteful 6dB boost — along with a nudge in bias — resulting in repeats that just begin to flirt with saturation.

For those seeking something a bit more unruly, the high setting unleashes a robust 12dB boost and a further bias escalation, producing echoes that are richly saturated, thick with harmonic colour, and brimming with vintage character.

With I/O including a premium JFET analog front end, a Class A JFET TRS stereo input, a low-impedance TRS stereo output, an expression pedal input, and a USB jack for MIDI control from a computer or firmware updates, at the heart of it all sits an ARM processor that’s as powerful – if not more powerful – than most smartphones, and even more powerful than many of its big-box counterparts.

Strymon EC-1 – sounds

To properly put the EC-1 through its paces, I paired it with my 1965 Fender Vibrolux Reverb and my tried-and-true Fender American Professional II Jazzmaster (equipped with the new Seymour Duncan Vintage Silencer Jazzmaster pickups).

Dialling the time to about 1 o’clock, the repeats to 9 o’clock, and the mix to about three-quarters of the way up yielded a result reminiscent of Joshua Tree-era The Edge. Tweaking the Mechanics and age controls added even more warble and character to the repeats – enough to make Ed O’Brien giddy.

For the chicken picking enthusiasts, you’ll be happy to know when dialled in just right the results will yield one of the cleanest and crystal-like slapback sounds I have had the joy of playing. Adding in a bit of warble will give it a bit of modulated motion that won’t be too overbearing in a mix.

But how does it work with other pedals? If I’m being transparent, I was genuinely worried about how the Tape Age and Mechanics settings would pair with other pedals – especially its sister the Cloudburst with the Ensemble switch engaged. I knew it was either going to be utterly amazing or a complete mess.

However, with Ensemble engaged, I was gobsmacked by the amount of lush ambience I was able to conjure from that combination. I found myself channelling riffs that would feel right at home between Parachutes-era Coldplay and Young Mountain-era This Will Destroy You. Needless to say, it put a smile on my face to hear how well this pairing accentuated the strengths of each pedal.

Strymon EC-1 – should I buy one?

Strymon’s fourth entry into their new smaller form factor is easily one of their most surprising releases to date. While taste is subjective, the EC-1 is one of the best echo pedals I’ve ever played. At a fraction of the cost, it does what it needs to do without any of the complexity of the big-box competition. If you’re looking for something that sounds better than El Capistan version 1 but comes with a smaller price tag than version 2, this is easily the pedal for you.

Strymon EC-1 – alternatives

Another pedal that offers a more streamlined take on the big box high-end delays is the Universal Audio Orion ($99/£95). Boss’s RE-2 ($241.99/£169) comes with authentic Space Echo sounds and looks in the iconic compact format, while the Catalinbread Belle Epoch ($209/£159) is hugely popular for a reason.

The post Strymon EC-1 review: “It does what it needs to do without any of the complexity of the big-box competition” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.