Depending on your available funds and how you plan on leveling up, just using instruments off a merchant might be best for you. Vendor instruments are like 1.8-2.0x mods iirc (i.e. they basically make your songs twice as effective as they are when just singing), so nearly as good as special instruments really but at a tiny, tiny fraction of the price.
If you're going to be leveling by grouping, you should probably spend your money on 5/55 rings, weapons, and other hp/ac/dex/resist gear before you worry about spending money on slightly better instruments that you'll rarely use.
If you're looking at doing the bard AE leveling thing, definitely look at getting the best drum and best horn you can afford, even if that means you can't afford anything else. The better the drum = the faster the pulls, and the better the horn = the higher damage your dots will be doing. You'll die if you mess up and get caught by the 30-100 mobs chasing you no matter how much money you spend on AC/hp/whatever, so might as well just go all out on making your songs as effective as possible.
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