Former music teacher becomes award-winning luthier, opens shop In Kilgore
He was forced to choose between teaching and making instruments.
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) -Mitch Moehring is a double bass luthier, which is the name for one who makes stringed musical instruments.
He is a former music teacher who taught 6th graders and was introduced to his craft by tinkering with broken instruments.
“When you give an instrument to a sixth grader no matter how well you teach them to handle them things are going to happen, accidents are going to happen, so we have this plethora of broken instruments in which we called the instrument graveyard,” said Moehring.
He was forced to choose between teaching and making instruments.
“Can I teach a full-time job and also work on the side and see my family each night? It came to a point where I had to choose,” said Moehring.
He met a 98-year-old fiddle maker in Kilgore named Glen Lee who suggested that he go to school to receive formal training on how to make string instruments.
After graduating from an accredited institute, he made plans to open up his own shop.
He now specializes in making double basses but also makes violins, and other stringed instruments.
“You’re still dealing with wood that’s alive, a living piece of material and, you know, things can go wrong,” said Moehring.
Moehring says that the wood can crack from drying too quickly and is often unusable from the way the wood on the tree grows.
“At one time it was a tree, it’s pretty amazing,” said Moehring.
He uses a variety of different woods from Africa, Europe, and different parts from around the world.
“The last bass that I made, that mahogany, had been in America was cut down for about 20 years,” said Moehring.
His prices for making basses start at $28,000 and up, depending on what the player is looking for. Moehring says he prefers to hand deliver his instruments and travels around the world to his customers.
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