Claus Mohri has died

Obituary by Juha Vaananan

My heart was broken when I found out that my dear friend Claus Mo has left us last Thursday at the age of 66 years old. Claus was a German player builder, who, along with the classic guitars, also built first-class ukulele and taro. The Taro Patch Built by Claus has been one of my main inspiration for over 10 years. Claus represented the absolute top guard of his profession and his instruments made a number of known professional brothers to hold their breath. They combine a German little precision, an incredibly bright voice world, sharp tones and an incredibly easy call... Claus was also a great friend of Finland and spent several summers with his wife, Susan, on the beaches of saimaa. They also visited the festival of fun and the Finnish castle picnic. Who are the lucky owners of mo-u or have sometimes been able to try the instruments he has built, understand how much a loss this is for the whole ukulele world. Claus was a great, modest and warm person, rest in peace dear friend,
 
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Sad news indeed.

For those of you who haven't heard of Claus. In the German ukulele community he was a true legend.
Just a few weeks ago, I visited him in his workshop and he told me his story of how the ukulele found him:

He started building guitars more than 40 years ago. Later in his career, he also was building so called "Hamburger Cithrinchen" (https://www.instrumentenbau-kilian.de/hamburgercithrinchen.html). One day, his wife came home with a photograph she found on the internet. A photograph of a luthier made Zither from Brasil that looked just like Claus'. (Anyone knows who that might be?) He did some research and what he found out was that the instrument on the picture actually was an ukulele with just the appearance of a Hamburger Cithrinchen.

So, the first ukulele Claus built was a "converted" Zither - 8 strings. Claus later found out about the old taropatches Martin did and kind of specialized in making these (he was still making normal 4-string ukuleles, of course).

That was around 2002. Shortly after that, he stopped making guitars for good and specialized in making ukuleles only.

Claus was a one-by-one-builder. That is why there aren't too many Mohri ukuleles out there. Here is one of the few existing sound demos:



Two years ago, he build me an all maple concert ukulele. Here are some pictures of it: http://ukulelezeit.de/meine-claus-mohri-ukulele/

I will miss him deeply, and yet I am happy and thankful to always be able to be reminded of him when playing my Mohri uke.
 
Condolences to Claus Mohri's family, friends and acquaintances.

Ludwig your maple concert looks to be a fine instrument indeed.

It's nice to know that testaments to Claus and his memory will continue on in the music made from his instruments.
 
Of really outstanding quality are also his Taropatches (eight-string ukes). Special also as he made them in concert size, too (as well as in more standard tenor size). I coincidentally recorded a song just last week on mine which I got from him last year.
It‘s a concert-size, made of Australian Blackwood with a cedar top. It‘s really amazing fun to play, wiith a slightly radiused fretboard. A truly marvelous instrument. So sad, he can‘t make any more such fantastic ukes....

 
Sad news indeed....

Two years ago, he build me an all maple concert ukulele. Here are some pictures of it: http://ukulelezeit.de/meine-claus-mohri-ukulele/

I will miss him deeply, and yet I am happy and thankful to always be able to be reminded of him when playing my Mohri uke.

Thank you for this remembrance and the links.
I love that he’s playing a contemporary piece in the clip....

~ S.
 
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