I would first find some good instructional material (hunting videos, Elknuts calling series is great or audio tapes with some calls) and pick up a couple of cow calls first off. I use several but have found the Hootchie(while simple and minimized tone) to be a good choice to carry. I also use the Primos Lead Cow/Calf call and like it a lot(it has also worked extremely well on bulls and cows in the field). I would also look at buying a palate plate mouth call, I use these as much as any other call and blowing cow or calf calls is actually not that difficult. I like the primos brand for these as well. I found sounding like more than one cow to be extremely effective and as such a mouth diaphram or reed call with a hootchie you can pull it off as a one man band. Cow talk is really an important part in calling elk IMHO.

Bugles well IMO (although I haven't mastered all the calls as of yet!!) diaphram mouth calls with a good grunt tube are the best but do take time. If you want a read call bugle the Power Lip as suggested or the Primos Terminator would be the ones I'd suggest (from my experience). I carry both, well sort of....lol. I like the Terminator tube better than the Power Lip, especially for diaphram call use..but I prefer the mouth piece on the Power Lip. So I did a switch on the components to erase the need for both around my neck.

Good Luck