OUR STORY
OUR STORY
THE DE LEEUW ATELIER
For four centuries, France has built a tradition of instrument-making founded on the intelligence of the hand. The electric guitar was born outside this lineage. De Leeuw exists to bring it in. In our atelier in Pont-Sainte-Maxence, each instrument is entirely sculpted by hand by Quentin De Leeuw, our master luthier, and the artisans he has trained.
TIMELINE
April 2026 — Selected by Paulin, Paulin, Paulin to equip the music studio of their exhibition Mise-en-scène, in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth Monaco. The Nina is exhibited until 31 August 2026.
January / February 2026 — Private trunk show in Los Angeles during Grammy week. De Leeuw is invited to Sony Music's events.
November 2025 — Presented at the Élysée Palace for the Grande Exposition du Fabriqué en France, on the Presidential Stage — the first electric guitar maker ever selected for the exhibition.
October 2025 — Carried by Sixty Sixty Sounds in London, bringing our network to six countries.
May 2025 — Invited by the French Pavilion of the Osaka Expo 2025 to present French electric guitar making.
February 2025 — Following the NAMM Show, De Leeuw expands into five countries: United States, Japan, UAE, Switzerland and France.
January 2025 — Endorsement of Pozzi (Mojave Grey), De Leeuw's first American artist. First appearance of a De Leeuw on Taratata, France's reference live music television, in the hands of Alex Grolée (Lucky Love).
October 2024 — Awarded the Origine France Garantie certification — France's official Made in France label.
January 2024 — Guitars presented at the NAMM Show (Anaheim, California).
December 2023 — Miraval Studios commissions a Nina Air and an SC6 bass for its reopening — De Leeuw's first studio partnership.
November 2023 — Invited to We Are French Touch, the gathering of the major companies of the French cultural and creative industry, organised by we are_and La French Touch – Bpifrance.
November 2023 — De Leeuw is awarded the Grand Prix de l'Espoir du Made in France.
February 2023 — Drawn to the De Leeuw identity, musician Johan Papaconstantino chooses to play one of our guitars. The lacquered top of his instrument, with its unique motifs, is created from one of his own drawings.
May 2022 — Invited to the Paris Opera to present the savoir-faire of French electric guitar making, as part of the Tous à l'Opéra event.
March 2022 — The NINA DEEP BLUE wins the award of the Paris Guitar Show : Prix de la Belle Guitare.
October 2021 — Quentin De Leeuw and David Schwarz open the atelier.
THE FOUNDERS
Maître Artisan d'Art
QUENTIN DE LEEUW
Raised between the forests of Halatte and Compiègne, Quentin De Leeuw has been passionate about wood and the guitar since childhood. Before opening his atelier, he set himself a clear ambition: to master every woodworking discipline that could serve the instrument. He chose one of the few schools in France teaching the widest range of these crafts under a single roof, and progressed from one diploma to the next — each chosen to push the intelligence of his hand a little further. He successively earned national craft qualifications (CAP) in cabinetmaking, marquetry and ornamental sculpture, then a Brevet des Métiers d'Art in cabinetmaking, while training in the restoration of Louis XVI furniture. In 2026, at thirty-one, he was awarded the title of Maître Artisan d'Art (master craftsman in the French métiers d'art). A musician himself, he built his first guitar at eighteen and opened his atelier at twenty-one.
This double mastery — lutherie and the full craft of wood, from structure to ornament — places De Leeuw in the lineage of the great French instrument makers. Today, his hand brings to the electric guitar the slow, exacting work of the French tradition of instrument-making.
DAVID SCHWARZ
An entrepreneur who has built his career connecting worlds that rarely speak — creative industries, technology, and today fine lutherie applied to the electric guitar. David Schwarz met Quentin in 2021; together they launched De Leeuw Guitars. His role is to build around the atelier what allows a savoir-faire to become a brand: brand identity, artist relations, institutional partnerships, international growth. Unlike French gastronomy or the art of living, fine craftsmanship applied to music holds no spontaneous place in the international imagination. David's work has been to build it — instrument by instrument, recognition after recognition.
In four years, De Leeuw has gone from a 34 m² atelier to a name carried by eight dealers in six countries.
David has spoken at the Élysée Palace during the Grande Exposition du Fabriqué en France 2025, and at France Is A Creative Land alongside Bénédicte Épinay (Comité Colbert) and Nathalie Bader (Interparfums), on French fine craftsmanship as a vector of influence abroad.