I am going to try my second time at piping. I had to stop last time when I moved etc.. I was thinking of ordering the 3/8 David Daye set. The idea of having the drones to play along with is very appealing. I did a search for this 3/8 set but did not come up with much. Should I just get his practice set, or go for the 3/8? I won’t be starting this time as a complete novice, so maybe it is doable?
Pardon my ignorance but what’s a 3/8th set?
Hadn’t heard of that before, myself Tommy, but all was revealed when I went to David Daye’s website. He is offering a practice set with the addition of the two smaller drones in a mini stocks.
Bob
As 3/8 is halfway between a a 1/4 and a 1/2 I would guess it would have 1.5 drones… 
If baritone is 1, tenor is 1/2. That makes 1.5 drones. That makes sense. I suppose.
http://daye1.com/pennycsets_fin.html#38
Partial stand of the 2 smaller Budget Concert Drones
Honestly if I were to only have two drones, I would want one of them to be the bass drone. I would go for the half set, and forget about a 3/8 set personally.
I have a sole tenor drone with my C chanter.
I think it sounds great.
Not sure why one or two drones isn’t more popular.
I have seen mini Bill Haneman sets.
If you want an idea of how much great piping can come from a ‘wee’ set
listen to Pat Mitchell’s album. Only chanter and two smaller drones there.
I have a Haneman 3/8 set in C#, and I love it. While I do hope to “upgrade” it to a 3/4 set some day, in the mean time I’m enjoying the tenor/baritone drone configuration – it sounds just fine. Plus, it’s 33% easier to keep the drones working properly. 
It’s always made sense to me that there should be such a thing: it allows for a price-point between practice set and half set, and the bass drone is the logical drone to leave out or defer, given how much metalsmithing it requires.
–Mick
Though I’m a living example of being able to get a university degree without taking a single math course, the math on all this stuff just doesn’t work out.
Let’s see, a ‘full set’ has three drones and three regs. That adds up to six.
Why on earth divide by eight?
Have only two drones and it’s 2/6, or 1/3rd.
Anyhow I played a set for 20 years that had a small drone that didn’t work. I thought having the two deeper drones was fine. Most types of bagpipes have a bass only, or a bass and tenor. Having a treble drone (unison with the chanter) is fairly uncommon.
Tenor plus baritone is compact and inexpensive, and conveniently can be stopped with end pins, eliminating the need for a full featured mainstock. It can sound quite rich (As exemplified by Pat Mitchell’s album).
Bass plus baritone doesn’t share these advantages, so there isn’t much point in that configuration IMO.
In my own case when pricing, two drones in a small stock is about 1/4 the price of a fullsize hollow stock and three drones. Most of the labor is in the stock and bass drone. This may not be true for all bass drone designs, for instance those that are mostly or entirely tubing.
My D chanter has a solo tenor drone…sounds fine. Yes, having a drone that’s in unison with the Tonic is pretty well uncommon across the board, but the chanter an drone get along rather well, most especially from low D to G, where you are essentially playing through several inversions of Chords off the D major scale, starting with a D7 by playing E, D Major on F#, G Maj inverted on G, and back to D Maj on A, etc. The dissonances and resolutions you hear while moving through these are similar in some ways to playing regs-only on a 3/4-set, and allow the pipes to accompany some other instrument or a voice rather nicely, particularly for a slow air, rather than having to be so heavily a featured melody instrument. I enjoy taking the backseat every now and again.
If funds are limited I would suggest getting Dayes cheapest bag and bellows and buying the best possible chanter you can afford. I’d personally rather play a set that’s better than me…