Cait Reed/Reid (could this the San Francisco fiddler, Pat?) owns a full set in C, and Joe McKenna has a C# boxwood chanter, but are there any other flat sets or chanters made by Leo Rowsome? As far as I know he mostly made “concert pitch” (a little sharp of A=440) D chanters and sets. I understand that he probably repaired, and made reeds for flat sets as he was one of the few pipemakers in Ireland active up until 1970. On the Ri na bPiobairi (King of the Pipers) recording, Claddagh CC1CD. Leo plays a C set on the B-side, I assume a Willie Rowsome set?
Are the things you mention stamped “Leo Rowsome” ?
“Are the things you mention stamped “Leo Rowsome” ?” canbelticsniper.
Aye, Leo always stamped his things 
Steampacket, I wonder if the chanter you mention belonging to Joe McKenna is the same boxwood chanter Joe uses with his O’Mealy full set. Apparently the O’Mealy chanter has gone missing, and it is commonly known that Joe used a Leo Rowsome Chanter with this C# O’Mealy set.
You also might enquire of Ronan Browne about his E flat Leo Rowsome chanter.
Bob
“Apparently the O’Mealy chanter has gone missing, and it is commonly known that Joe used a Leo Rowsome Chanter with this C# O’Mealy set. You also might enquire of Ronan Browne about his E flat Leo Rowsome chanter.” an seanduine.
Thanks Bob, didn’t know that about Joe’s O’Mealy set, that the original chanter was missing. Prehaps Leo made one off flat chanters to special order? Joe was a pupil of Leo’s. Doesn’t surprise me that Leo made an Eb chanter though as he seemed to like that high pitch sound. Someone sent me the info about Cait R’s Leo Rowsome C set. The only Cait R I came across is a fiddler in San Francisco, but it’s possible that she is also a piper and was given the set.
On the LP Leo plays a C set of his own manufacture, with a chanter his Dad made. I was told of another gal in San Francisco who owned a Rowsome C set - seem to remember it was a Leo. It’s in a closet, at any rate.
Love Mitchell and Leo’s piping but never cared for the sound of these things, pretty drab next to Egan etc.
I can’t say If I’ve ever heard a Rowsome chanter that was not concert pitch or slightly sharp of A 440 that was reliably identified as such. When I heard Joe McKenna in person he was playing a D set of his own manufacture. Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I don’t think Joe is playing the C# on his two Albums.
What I do know, is that Ronan Browne reports that Sam Farrarr heard the O’Mealy set both with the original O’Mealy chanter and the Leo Rowsome chanter and said the Rowsome chanter compared unfavorably with the original. This wouldn’t surprise me in the least, since O’Mealy followed the Kenna narrow bore model, and I have never seen a Rowsome chanter of any pitch with anywhere as narrow a throat. If there are any out there I would very much like to examine them. Even the Willie Rowsome set I was able to examine had nothing as narrow a throat as the O’Mealys and Kennas.
Bob
Hi
I remember a Leo Rowsome C set being offered for sale by Johnny Bourke in the early eighties. The set belonged to a piper called Lonan Byrne and was made of boxwood but unfortunately the chanter had warped to such a degree as to be useless. In fact Lonan had Eugene Lambe make a new Ebony chanter using the keys and chanter top from the original chanter and this was the chanter that was being played with the set. The original (now keyless and topless) chanter was also included in the sale. Lonan wated £1,100 for it back then.
Kevin Rowsome plays a beatiful C sharp chanter made by Leo.
Keep well
John
I believe the C# chanter Kevin Rowsome plays is by Denis Harrington and is marked as such. It has, however, as they say, “had extensive work done” on it, having a nearly complete lower section artfully grafted on it.
Bob
Joe played the O’Mealysome set on his 1st LP. Things are squeakier after that. Some nice cuts of him playing the C# at the comhaltas archive.
Guy who got me started with pipes caught Joe/Antoinette late 70s, when he was playing the O/R set. They came back a year or so later - all the ivory was cracked to hell from wandering over North America’s funky climates.
Same guy later queried Joe about his cool 6 key small regulator on the concert-or-sharper set he built for himself. “Ah, feck, couldn’t get a reed that would make that note work!” Joe’s kind of a casual pipemaker, I’m told.
Joe and Antoinette were wearing the garb from the cover of the 3rd LP…Joe was in good humor for drunken request of the slide played on the regulators. Great piper.
Ah, ye-e-s-s, that was the tour with the duct tape and the leaky bag. . . .Joe looked like a goonybird flapping its wings to take off inflating the bag. . . .didn’t seem to detract from the technique tho’. . . 
Bob 
Be careful not to confuse Willie and Leo. Willie definitely made flat sets; some of the chanters etc. attributed to Leo in this thread are, to the best of my knowledge, Willie’s work.
The one Willie Rousome set I have been able to examine closely appeared to be a set somewhat sharp of current modern concert pitch. Do you know if he marked any of his work as ‘Rowsome’ as opposed to ‘Rousome’?
Bob
I´m not sure about this. Could somebody - if possible at all - confirm this, please? I watched that Willie used an ornamental-ring-pattern of 3-1-3 whereas Leo used 3-2-3 ?
“Body: Willie, chanter : Leo” Mr. Gumby.
Peter is this set Mick O’Brien’s?