Just a hint.
Fellow piper Marcus Öberg is selling his Robbie Hughes practise set, as he plays several other pipes he hasn’t found the time to invest in UP.
Price is ~ 650 EUR, pictures can be seen here:
http://www.piping.se/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1142
This is the set I got started on, a very nice sounding chanter with good volume and a lot of character.
/MarcusR
edit:
Marcus Ö can be reached by: marcusoberg (and the mail thingy) followed by hotmail and com
I have played this chanter, along with Chris Bayley and Charles Roberts. It is, as Marcus says, a good sounding easy playing instrument. I think 650 euros is a very good price for this set, and it would be ideal for a beginner.
Thanks for the input Mike!
Yes, it is the very chanter that you, Chris and Charles each made a reed for a few years back.
A very interesting project, having three pipemakers set up reeds for one chanter at the same time.
Unfortunately Scandinavian climate is quite hard on UP reeds if they don’t get to be played. I think Marcus Ö still have the reeds you and Chris made, Charles reed committed suicide after spending a few weeks in my house 
Marcus Ö had Bill Haneman make him a new reed for the chanter when he visited Dublin last year, as the others had begun to close up. The new reed turned out to play very well.
The price is low, actually the same price Marcus Ö paid me and that was a price between friends.
He recon he doesn’t want to make money on the deal and instead pass it on to someone who will be committed to learn or play the set.
Good for our piping community if it stays local 
Best of luck with your own pipemaking Mike, hope to see you over here in Sweden this spring.
Cheers!
/MarcusR
Sold!