Looking to rent/borrow pedal steel + accessories in Montreal

[Stephane Krims]

Hi everyone, I'm a professional musician in Montreal, playing mainly bass and guitar in all styles.
A band I'm in is currently recording an album, and I've been proposed to lay down some simple pedal steel tracks. The thing is though, I don't own a pedal steel, and I still have some financial reservations about buying one right now. Learning would not be a problem - I do play lap steel, I'm very quick to learn new instruments, and I have checked out some pedal steel guitars before, but never for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. For this incentive to go through I would have to find a place or an individual in Montreal who maybe rents pedal steels once in a while for touring bands and such, and find a bar that I'm not allergic to (nickel).
[side note: for this last reason I'm considering just buying a ceramic or BJS bar and be done with it - Butch has told me in the past that they are nickel-free.]

Does anyone have any leads on who could rent me an instrument to record on, after spending a little while getting comfortable with it? I shouldn't need more than a couple weeks.

Feel free to email me if you'd like to talk outside of the forum.

Thanks everyone

[Ben Price]

Stephane - I know this isn't the response you were asking for - however I believe it will be difficult to find a pedal-steel for rent. Another option is to send your tracks to a pro steel player with some guidance on what you want, and have them lay the tracks down. This option is quick, and very likely less expensive than renting a guitar (and certainly less time-consuming).

If you have your heart set on learning the pedal-steel (and it sounds like maybe you do), then purchasing a guitar is a good investment. But be warned, it's addictive!

Ben Price
San Antonio Steel Guitar Association

[john widgren]

Get a rental, learn to play, and do a session on a PSG...Yeah, how hard could it be?

Hahaha! Best of luck with the rental and the session.

JW