I began with a practice chanter. Not a particularly expensive one but certainly not cheap rubbish either. I did make sure that the tutorial book was one of the best on the market and that wasn't cheep either.

I explored the goose option (a pipe bag and chanter without drones) as my next step but figured it would be cheaper in the long run to go ahead and buy a reasonable set of full pipes.

It's a simple process to remove the drones and cork their stocks and you have a goose that transforms into proper pipes when you're ready. If you buy a goose first, you have to re-invest in pipes later.

Scott. Get a decent practice chanter and a manual and give it a bash. You'll love it honestly. It takes a few months to get proficient on the practice chanter anyway (particularly if you've got past experience with whistles and recorders, you have to unlearn all that muscle memory first). This gives you some time to save towards full highland pipes if the bug does bite you.

Gwaaaan... You know you want to!