What is it about Rowsome chanters that make them special?
I’ve heard and read pipers remark on how incredible the chanters are, but I’ve also heard they are difficult to play.
How many Rowsome chanters are out there, and did design of the chanter stay the same over the years?
Is Kevin Rowsome making pipes?
thanks
What makes Rowsome chanters special for most of us is I suppsoe the fact that the pipers we listened to before we started and while we were learning more often than not played rowsome chanters. When reeded in a certain way the have a particular sound you associate with particular players.
They are not all the same, several different designs seem to be around and budget ones made (seemingly) out of broomsticks to very meticulously made ones out of fine ebony.
They are not flawless, in many ways they are less than perfect but at their best they have that special Rowsome-ish sound you associate with the generation before.
Bumped into a guy on a college course the other day who happened to menion he’d bought a Rowsome half-set from the maker back in the 70’s - he thought for about £200. He plays whistle but because of a demanding job never had the chance to learn to play the pipes so they’ve been in a cupboard ever since! 
Boy, am I keen to drop round his house!
j.i.
Rowsome was ‘The Man’ for about 50 years. I don’t know of anyone else who was making great D chanters during that period. Hennelly and Brown may have made a dozen chanters during that period in the US. Crowley and Kennedy of Cork didn’t turn out great chanters. Leo was working with his father at the pipemaking business as early as 1920 (I have seen a receipt for work performed back then). No one but Leo was making great chanters during that period.
Sounds like it most likely a LEON Rowsome 
(Leo died september 1970)
Entertaining the idea of making this fellow an offer?
Stranger things have happened, eh Joseph?
I think I should at least offer him the £200 he paid - after all, they are secondhand now! 
j.i.
Tom Creegan told me that the Leo chanters made before the 40s were the most sought after, as he seemed to still be using his father’s designs, which apparently originated in turn from a large bore Taylor chanter. In the 40s Leo seemed to experiment more, and sometimes the chanter would be a bit troublesome in spots.
Tom’s own 50s Rowsome set had regulator keys forged so thin Tom would look down on occasion and the set would be covered in blood! Funky bass drone too - big sleeve of brass in the first section. Tom had the set renovated recently, he had the keys thickened up, thus no more involuntary suicide. Although that seems a bit apt with the Creegan.
Why not? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?