@tinker Hi!

I'm building 3d printable #uilleannpipes. Right now I have the chanter, chanter cap, stocks, and blowpipe. If you can supply a bag, bellows, and reed, I can supply the rest. This will save you maybe $400 on a practice set.

I'm about a year away from having a complete set: I still need to make the parts for the bellows, and then design sewing patterns for the bag and the bellows.

Hope is on the way, in other words. Stick with the whistle as you building your repertoire: the pipes are cantankerous, and learning tunes at the same time you learn the pipes is just going to max out the difficulty.

For what it's worth, I play a $180 MK Kelpie Low D, and a $20 Clarke "high" D. I have a $200 McNeela Wild that's a fine instrument, but it's not 10× better than the Clarke, and I wind up playing the Clarke more because it feels less snooty.

So stick with it (OAIM is excellent), learn a bunch of tunes, see if you can find a local learner's session or slow session, learn more tunes, pick up some ornamentation, learn more tunes, and at that point I might have a $60 Uilleann Pipe set for you :)

https://woozle.org/tags/bagpipes/