Some unique instruments which Michiel developed over the years have been used extensively in productions starting in 2002 with the creation of the Fietsbandbas and the Velofoon. Below a description of each instrument and some examples of its use.

FIETSBANDBAS / BIKE TYRE BASS

“This bass has a couple of origin stories, which, like small mountain creaks, gradually came together. One story was, I used to use bike tyre (inner tube) to tie stuff together. It’s just perfect for that. I also always would hit or pluck anything to hear what it sounded like. I had on occasion noticed that a strip of tightened bike tyre created a deep and punchy bass note. The second storyline, a good friend of mine had been dreaming for years of owning a contrabass. And third, I had just been to see an art exhibition of Salvador Dali, in Amsterdam. After having seen his melted clocks draped over tree branches, I was toying in my mind with the idea of making a birthday present for that friend of mine, a bass in Dali style design with bike tyre strings. The thing was, that the strings needed much shorter scale length than a normal bass in order to get the right pitches and so a neck was not necessary. The Dali style of reshaping the bass allowed me to use one of the curved parts as a kind of cutaway, making it easier to reach the fingerboard with the strings. It took me about 3 weeks to make it, a bit excessive for a joke of a birthday present but my friend was quite chuffed with it. After some months though, he had not used it very much, and was going to move to Spain. He gave it back to me. Around that time I was just getting to work with the gang from Parne Gadje / Big Low / Smoked Recordings, and, as can be seen in the picture on the side, Dan Tuffy quickly became intertwined with the bike tyre bass. (On the left it’s me btw with my then 7 year old daughter) This bass has been used on about 8 albums, and came with us on countless tours through Europe. Unfortunately, the strings don’t last long here in Greece due to the climate, I need to find a solution to that. In any case, it’s been sitting too long in a corner. I’ll get it out soon. I made a second, smaller one which I gave to Dan when I moved out of Holland.”

CLAUDEVIOL

“For some songs I had been using a short bow on the Velophone, playing only the highest and lowest string, for an effect, in some tracks mainly with Big Low. After we did a tour in Australia in 2010, the Velophone suffered some serious damage in the plane during the trip back, and couldn’t be used for a while. For the plucked parts, I had at least an acoustic baritone guitar in the same tuning which didn’t sound the same but at least allowed me to play similar parts, but bowing was not possible. So I decided to stick two strings on a scrap piece of wood, quickly make some frets, and put in a cheap piezo pickup, so I could bow something during the next shows. Since the two strings I would normally be bowing were tuned two octaves apart, I figured I could add an octave in between and raise that string a bit at the bridge. My son Jip gave me a hand that day.. see the picture of the original Klote Viool or Claudeviol, a little Dutch pun. Of course the thing turned out way more useful than I had foreseen and it’s been used extensively in various productions, including the last Parne Gadje album, Parissa Bouas’ EP, and most notably during my collaborations with Zulya. I used it as a bass guitar on ‘Six Days Loving’, as a plucked lute like instrument, sounding quite close to the Tibetan Dranyen, and bowed as a kind of distorted cello. When we went to Kazan to present the album, I went with only the Claudeviol. Some people there were making jokes like it was some sort of rediscovered traditional Tatar instrument. The original ClaudeViol didn’t last long as it had some serious cracks in the top, which was also too thin in places, so I made a new one out of a piece of white cedar from the region of my parents in France (Limousin), and a small piece of tropical hardwood from Burkina Faso as the fingerboard. I used red cedar as the top, some ready pieces I bought from a lutherie shop.” Article Sponsored Find something for everyone in our collection of colourful, bright and stylish socks.

BANJO BASS

“To be honest, I can’t remember where this came from. I probably saw an old photo of a New Orleans band or so, as the bass-banjo was an existing instrument for use on the street in the 1930s and thereabouts. Marc, our bandoneon-playing percussionist singer, had an old rotten kick drum lying around and gave it to me, for whatever reason, and I made a neck for it. Originally with 4 strings but I didn’t like the sound with 4 strings tightened. I wanted to be able to play it with a bow so I also changed the angle of the neck after a couple of days. In any case, it was very middy and honky with 4 strings while I had noticed a deep rumbling sound with only the first low strings tightened. So I took the other two off. That’s why it has until this day 4 tuning pegs but only 2 strings. Plucked, it has a very boomy and uncontrolled sound – which only works in a song with a lot of space in the arrangement. Bowed, it sounds kind of amazing. I always loved bowed bass, I was inspired in that sense by Primus Lead man Les Claypool, and also by Argentine tango which I used to play for some time; the banjo bass has to me the most fantastic groovy bow sound of all basses. And the funniest thing is that it needs actually almost no processing in the mix, plus it leaves room for other low frequency parts since it actually doesn’t have a lot of low end. “

The Banjo Bass is originally a kick drum and it is sometimes still used for percussion, as can be seen in the DARK ACOUSTIC clip (check up next to the Claude Viol) – where it is also played with a bow.

RESO-LAOUTO

“Since moving to Greece, I got to play the traditional Laouto a bit, which is a long necked lute with frets, with a bit of a weird tuning in fifths with double strings, some of which are in octaves. It’s mainly used for accompaniment although some virtuoso’s have with succes used it as a solo instrument. But I never got along with the sound as a melody instrument since it is quite thin and sparkly sounding. Compared to my National Resophonics resonator guitar it lacks body. So at some point I started wondering what it would sound like if I could make a resonator version of a Laouto. In fact I looked all over the net to see if anyone had tried it, as all kinds of resonator string instruments have been made in the past, such as tenor resonator guitars, which have a similar tuning but with single strings. In 2023 I was invited to play at the Dancing Strings Festival in Holland, on the Laouto. I got frustrated once more with the instrument and started thinking whether it would be possible to make a resonator laouto before the festival. It seemed too short notice but I started anyway. Since a resonator guitar basically works like a speaker cabinet, it doesn’t need subtly balanced back and sides but rather a heavy construction so that simplified things. The biggest challenge was the fretboard, which I had never made myself yet. But with some tips from the internet I found a way to get it done fairly accurately. After 3 weeks the instrument was working and sounded actually much better than I had expected. I took it to Holland together with the traditional Laouto, but ended up using only the Reso-Laouto since it is easier to play and better in tune than the old one.”

The Reso-Laouto has been used so far at the Dancing Strings Festival (See video on the side), for recordings with the Ciconia ensemble of Gerwil Kusters, and for an upcoming project of Moroccan percussionist Noreddine El Mrabti and Ud player Kamal Hors.