• Hello - Intro time - My name is Ian, and I’m a struggling full time musician - I only play original music, thus probably why I’m struggling Ian C.T. vom Saal
• I have a degree in music from Palm Beach State / Florida Atlantic University; in performance (jazz and classical guitar), but I typically only play original rock now.
• I’m a session guitarist, when I get the work, which is pretty much little to nonexistent these days. I used to work at Record Plant in Los Angeles as a session guitarist and runner, and I’ve recorded in several other recording studios in California, Atlanta, & Florida.
• I’m currently a guest artist 'adjunct' guitar instructor at the Leadership Conservatory For The Arts, and sometimes I run sound for their orchestra and ensemble concerts.
• I’m also a guitar luthier, and I sometimes make handmade bespoke electric guitars;
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• I’m the founding member, guitarist, vocalist, and music composer for the band Aries Rising. I started the band when I lived in San Diego and re-launched it in Tampa early 2012. After I blew out my voice in 2013 we got a new frontman; vocalist/lyricist & WWE / TNA Impact wrestler Daniel Solwold Jr. aka 'Austin Aries' (name coincidental). Dan left the band in 2017 to focus more on his wrestling career, and I resumed both guitar and lead vocalist duties. The musical focus is on ‘original' music, and the style is a blend of rock (hard rock, alternative rock, blues rock, alt/prog metal).
• My main rig generally consists of two '99 gibson les paul standards and two '13 schecter tempest customs (the guitar number fluctuates, but I'm currently down to 16 guitars). I'm currently trying to switch to the kemper power rack in a 4u with a voltage regulator, but my main tube amp is a mesa-boogie road king 2 into a port city 2X12 OS wave cabinet (honestly, it's one of the best sounding cabs on the market). I have a HUGE pedal pedalboard that I don't use, which includes a carl martin plexi-tone, a radial hot british, and a gold klon centaur (which I bought used in ‘99 with one of my les pauls). I haven’t used the pedalboard since '06 (most are still in the road case), and I basically only use a delay with the mesa road king, so I don’t even know why I still own half of them. I converted my rig to MIDI in 2016 via an RJM amp gizmo and a rocktron all access MIDI-raider touring footcontroller - the backup amp in my rack is an ElevenRack (the road king was so bulletproof that I never even figured out how to use). Everything is housed in a 6U rack with a furman ar1215 voltage regulator (power conditioners are just glorified power strips; they don’t really protect your rig from fluctuating voltages, and the power at most festivals, outdoor venues, and even a lot of clubs is all over the place).
• Presently I’m in the process of starting to move over to a Kemper Power Rack. I have no idea what I’m doing or how this things works, but hopefully this kemper will help to streamline my rig a bit, and keep with reliability and portability, and then maybe any $$ I make can go into, like . . . more guitars or something instead of tubes (a good Road King tube set is over $500 now, yikes).
