Began using the Hunting Horn - any weapon and armor recommendations?

My "eclectic" character has recently gotten into using the Hunting Horn weapon.

I love this weapon!

I am currently looking for a good Hunting Horn and armor set pairing.

This new character is only to the level five fight with the Ceadeus.

In terms of the Hunting Horn itself, you'll want to look for the songs they can play, and obviously high raw and sharpness is a must. Element is a little more important on HH than on Hammers, but not as important as say Lance or whatever.

You'll want standard blademaster armour skills, AUX, crit eye, that sort of thing. Armour doesn't really matter much at low rank, so long as you don't instantly die (upgrade your shit) and you're not running something completely and obviously god awful like one piece from 5 random monsters. (as in, no armour skills)

Like, at this point you can run with a full set of something, gemming out any negative skills and get to high rank with it.

EDIT: This might help

What Ataraxia said is good. I don't use HH that much, but I know some people go for a more (Assuming you are playing with a group) boosting style of skills. For example, getting the skills Wide Range and Speed Eating + HH can really boost you allies. Those skills plus Horn Maestro and Sharpness +1 (A hard set to get, but it's good) can make for a pretty awesome HH set.

Everything I said is coming from someone who has used the HH and grand total of 12 times though. Meaning, what I just said is from stuff I've read so you may want to throw the info out.

My Favorite Hunting Horn seems to be the fully upgraded Lucent Nargacuga one.

Having picked up HH a few months ago, you cant go wrong with the Metal bagpipe path, it is pretty allround with good numbers. Teh queropeco honker carried me for quite a long time in LR and the first row of HR.
Next I recommend the Snarfonica, it's water element comes in handy with the brach, ura, nox's etc.

That should keep you good for awhile. Dont worry about status on HH, you probably wont hit enough for the status to ever take.

As for armor skills, if you are playing online it is said that Meastro is pretty worth it. Otherwise the ussual suggestions, Attack up, crit eye, evasions, whatever fits your play style really.