De Leeuw Guitars

For four centuries, France has elevated wood to an art form, from fine cabinetmaking to instrument making. Of all wooden instruments, the electric guitar is the only one industrial by design: assembled, not sculpted.

The electric guitar grew up outside this tradition. De Leeuw exists to bring it in.

De Leeuw is a laureate of the Grande Exposition du Fabriqué en France at the Élysée Palace. Our straw marquetry Nina Air represented French instrument making there.

The first electric guitar maker raised to this rank.

Every instrument is entirely sculpted by hand in our Pont-Sainte-Maxence atelier. From logs of French walnut and maple, selected, milled and dried at the atelier, to the finished instrument, without a single CNC machine.

Fine cabinetmaking, straw and wood marquetry, ornamental carving, lutherie: four disciplines united in a single hand, that of Quentin De Leeuw, Maître Artisan d'Art.

A De Leeuw is not assembled; it is sculpted.

All our instruments are built neck-through, sculpted from French walnut and maple. Around fifty leave the atelier each year.

A De Leeuw leaves the atelier only to join the hands of a musician. Some on stage, others in the studios they were made for.

A guitar is chosen in the hand. We welcome you by appointment at the Paris showroom.