I will say that having the pakistani pipes taught me alot about maintenance!!!

I learned to tie in a bag, how to season a bag, how to get cheap cane reeds playable. and the cost of not researching other possible instruments!

and I did it all without an instructor.....i'm not saying its the way to go, but its the route I went.
I picked up all 3 College Of Piping books and was OCD about learning everything as close as possible w/o/ an instructor.....7 years later I have been told by a few PM's and a few PS's that i would rate about a grade 3...
and if I would only learn to read music( for some reason i can READ the music, then PLAY the music, but I cant read and play at the same time.... a little dyslexic in that respect ) i would probably be a borderline 3/2

my loss.....but I plan on getting the rest right soon.

if I could do it over again I would get an instructor from day one......
BUT!!! I did have JUST a practice chanter for the first 4 months

kfp