Starting bid $500US
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2515443156&category=624
Hi Tony,
I’ve had a look at ebay found the “Rowesome” I even thought about making a bid until I read it had tuning devices on some of the notes when a chanter has to be brought in to tune with rushes and things there only one place for “them” although it would have made a nice sentimental collection piece, I’ve seen one or two Leo Rowesowe chanters before were the name was on the bottom of the chanter? it seems to certainly have had a good playing life by the wear on it, But there again we all need a little help sooner or later when we get a little older guys anyway I’ve made an order for my new chanter from a maker in limerick. 
Isn’t the Rowsome design silghtly sharp in the second octave?
Stew,
That’s a bit reactionary, binning a chanter that needs a rush or two! If it plays in tune and sounds good, what’s the biggie with a bit of marsh grass up it? Don’t be surprised to find me rooting around your bins. At least the seller gave the OD for staples;. (Froment does rushing as part of his design, and lots of people respect his work highly)… And the wear? Scalloping for tuning?
Alan
In case there’s doubt, it looks like a Rowsome to me. It has all the characteristics of a Rowsome.
That it needed to be rushed to bring it into modern tuning is unimportant. I myself own and play a Rowsome that has a ‘rush’ to bring it into modern concert ‘D’ pitch and it is assuredly one of my favourite chanters.
One can never assume that merely because a chanter has been rushed that it is garbage or only good as a ‘sentimental piece.’ If you do, you may miss the opportunity to own a very nice chanter. Which is fine, though, because other people who know better will have the chance to buy it with less competition.
Dionys
P.s. This is one of his ‘budget’ chanters. Lacking the Ivory, keys and popping valve that others have.
The last Rowesome chanter that was for sale on eBay ended up being one of the nicest D chanters I’ve ever played. The price became irrelevant once I played it with a good reed in it. No rush was needed and it really did “play itself”. I’ve never known of a Rowesome chanter to play so well.
Congrats on the purchase of it…
Dionys
Oh, sorry if I sounded like I bought it.. I didn’t, it was a person I know. I wish I had bought it I can tell you… maybe not for that much but it is a doozey! 
I wouldn’t blame you a bit,
even if you had intended for it to sound like yours…
you could just keep reliving the moment you got to play it!
Oh, I guess reality is a little better.
Hey, just because this one may be a “budget” chanter,
that doesn’t mean anything does it? Just looks?
These old Rowsomes really do belong in the hands of pipers
who know how to appreciate their greatest potential.
Granted, not all Rowsome are equal.
A Dhionys, a chara,
an bhfuil tú comhalta na Daltaí na Gaeilge?
Dear Alan,
No one’s questioning Alain Froment’s work his own chanters
don’t need rushes my friend plays one and its a lovely instrument I’ve heard a lot of Leo Rowsomes chanters play perfectly in tune without rushes so why dose this chanter need to be rushed? may be he made it
in his early days when he was training as a pipe maker? if anything it shows how good a maker Alain must be to bring the chanter in to tune since the bottom and back D’s were not out of pitch or tune that any one
mentioned.
OK, I’m dumb. What’s ‘greenheart’? The guy lists the chanter as being made from greenheart.
Is it this?
Stuart
Stew,
I think you misread or misinterpreted my point. I mentioned Froment merely as an e.g. of a maker who pretty much sets his gear rushed.
The main point was that if any chanter, regardless of maker, sounds good and in tune with a rush, what’s the problem?
I’ve reeded Rowesomes and chocked 'em full of tuning “aids” and I’ve also stuck reeds straight in and away they go.
Rushes don’t immediately point to a poor instument.
Alan
Dear Alan,
Do you think Oboe,Flute,Clarinet,Player’s “play” in Orchrestra’s with bits of reed and wire stuck up there instruments to bring certain notes in “tune” what would happen while playing if part of the tuning reed or wire fell out ? If the chanter bore is right and the note holes are not in the right place the best Reed maker in the World will never get a reed to work correctly, A chanter is “like” say a flute you can adjust a flute to bring it in to its pitch its telescopic so you lengthen it or shorten it, With a chanter you can lift th reed or push it further in the chanter to bring it in to its pitch say “concert pitch” when in tune the bottom and back D should be in tune with one an other thats with any decent reed any notes between the two D’s should be in tune with the right fingering if not its out of tune you can scrape the reed in places to help notes and adjust the bridle but if your going have all that trouble every time you change the reed of having to adjust wires and other aids its not worth all that trouble, with chanters like thee’s going a round its a nightmare for beginners and at the end of the day these are faulty “chanters”.
OK, OK, so my name’s Stu, and I’m not Alan, but I thought I’d chime in. 
The BIG difference between all three of those instruments and the uilleann pipes is EMBOUCHURE. Of course orchestral players don’t rush their instruments. They don’t have to, because they can (and do) correct tuning with the embouchure. This is particularly true with double reeds; I think most double-reed players would laugh at the idea of only changing air pressure to change octaves. Playing an embouchured double reed myself, it’s a lot easier to play them in tune than it is to play pipes in tune.
Of course, on the UP, you can vary the pressure on the bag to some extent. Uilleann drones obviously have to play in tune over a huge variation in pressures since they’re supposed to be at the same pitch in both octaves. But even when you listen to the greats play great instruments well, you can hear a little waver in the drones with octave changes . . . so it’s just plain not a perfect system.
Tonehole placement is, no doubt about it, crucial to the tuning of the instrument. But so is the reed. No two reeds are identical by virtue of the fact that, if nothing else, reed cane is natural and has variability. I think that most of us do even correct for minor tuning problems with bag pressure and may not even realize that a “perfectly-in-tune” chanter and reed have some weirdness.
I don’t think people thought up rushes because the chanters or reeds were crap. I think they responded to the very real problem of a reeded instrument with no embouchure.
Stuart
…these are faulty chanters.
Didn’t someone say they were designed to be slightly above concert pitch and that the rushes were aids to bring it into tune at concert?
So, what’s the problem?
Stew,
You know that sinking the reed in, our pulling it out of a chanter moves the “optimum focus” point between reed and chanter. altering tuning in both 8ves. They are a unique instrument, and maintenance of tuning is an ongoing process in all cases. Pipers always tweak something, some more and longer than others. e.g. my chanter is usually fine and spot on in concert, enough to be perfectly comfortable in the company of fixed tuning instruments. Occasionally I get a sharp low E in whatever the amospherics are that cause it (and we would presume it’s the reed that has altered). I shove a roll of paper up above the E hole and bingo, then remove it when it changes again.
Despite them being highly developed they still retain that rudeness that is inherent in all bagpipes. They are cranky full stop! I guess I wouldn’t play them if you took the challenge away…
Alan
[/u]
That may be only partly true, Tony. The throat
in some Rowsomes is larger than the copy that I play on.
Mine is larger than normal and I can tell you for a fact
that rushing is necessary for some reeds and not for others.
Rushing is needed in mine, not so much for lowering the pitch,
but to correct the equality of impedance throughout the bore.
And it does lower pitch a little, and soften the tone. Rowsome
may have wired certain chanters, or certain reeds, or for
cetain nuances he desired from a particular reed/chanter,
as well.
If the throat is too large, some reeds demand a rush
of some kind in that area (be it 1-2" of wire,
a thin rolled card to narrow the bore in that area,
or a thin-wall, larger than staple, brass tube 3/4-1" long,
sometimes rat-tail filed inside at both ends)
to produce a hard low D, and sometimes ease the upper E.
Also, a rush in the bell is often needed to accompany the upper rush.
It would be nice to leave the upper bore open,
because it gives a freer tone, but the lower note(s) suffer.
You’ve really got to know what you want the chanter to do.
It pays to be open, and experiment with harmless ideas,
otherwise it’s a steady diet of eating “crow” as we live and
learn. It also pays to try different reed makers.
Not to repeate somyhing that may have been said before here but rousome has five , count um , five generations of pipmaking in the family , they must have been doing somthing right + rousome did make flat chanters as well .
This is what I suspect, sturob, that there is a reason for rushing, as an integral part of the design. Not that I know anything about design. My Williams boxwood is rushed, whether he himself incorporated this I don’t know, but it sounds good (irrespective of my playing abilities).