While not a pianist, I can also relate to this topic. I'm a self-taught guitarist from Nowhere, Nowhere. I actually chose to teach myself, just because I'm a stubborn arse and I don't like advice. Having a teacher is a great help, a true instructor all the better. But neither are needed. Yes, having a teacher would have accelerated my growth as a guitarist and allowed me to circumnavigate a great many obstacles. In the end, though, my hell-bent determination and vitriolic hatred of all things popular drove me to an obsessive practice regimine. Finding your modus operandi will get you pretty derned far, teacher or no.
And having a good instrument does help - in some cases, a lot. My first guitar and amplifier were both from the 60s (a testament to tube amps!) and in poor shape. But they were mine. They hindered forward progress, but it was something to practice on. I ascended all the way up to the $1,700 Jackson 'King V' (hence, my name) and I loved it. But my guitar of choice was a two hundred and fifty dollar guitar with a bad fretboard, frayed switch, and bad wiring. It was just more fun and more comfortable to play. The short of it is this: expensive is nice, but fun is better.
And it's good to see that you realized you were jumping (perhaps) a little too far ahead. Being half a fool, I did the same. My error was jumping from run-of-the-mill heavy metal to guitarists such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Romeo and then Paganini's Caprices and Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. After playing the Impromptu theme twice, I said "Eh, this won't work" and I damn near quit.
I know everyone has already given their own horror stories a thousand times, but if one-thousand and one will get you over the hump (for good), then I could ramble all day.
The meat of the matter is this: I did give up. One day, only a few months ago, I just whimsically decided that I had peaked and would never improve; Ashleigh Simpson's SNL flub also convinced me that music was nothing more than a farce. Two days after that I sold all my guitars (four in total), both my amps, cables, strings, pedals, everything - for about one hundred and fifty bucks. I settled on a cheap acoustic to take up classical guitar and haven't really played since - this after nearly six years to the day of devotion to the guitar. It was one of my worst mistakes. Now, insteading of annoying people with my old shrill, slurred, just plain vulgar improvisations...I sit in my garage, staring at the walls.
So never give up! It sucks.
P.S., Some might say, "Well, that's the guitar. Pianists need an instructor." To that I say this: in my quest to be more classical, I tried my hand at the piano. I am teaching my self a vuglar rendition of Rachmaninoff's Prelude, G Minor - and having to learn how to read sheet music at the same time. I'll never be able to play it properly, nor will it ever even sound good. But who cares, right?
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