MIRAVAL STUDIOS
MIRAVAL STUDIOS
SEMI HOLLOW
A walnut body, carved down to the essential: the NINA AIR combines acoustic resonance, playing balance and lightness — around 2.7 kg.
THE PIEZO SYSTEM
Alongside the magnetic pickups sits a Graphtech ghost system: under each string, a sensor set into the saddle picks up its vibration at the bridge, where a magnetic pickup reads its movement. A dedicated preamp draws from it a clear voice, close to an acoustic.
A three-way selector chooses one of the two systems, or blends them: a way to shape one's tone between electric and acoustic.
THE NECK HEEL
The sculpted heel of our neck-through builds gives full access to the upper frets and a rare playing comfort. It is one of the signatures of Quentin De Leeuw, Maître Artisan d'Art.
COMMISSIONING A DE LEEUW
To commission a De Leeuw is to enter one of the few French ateliers specialised in instrument-making, where every guitar is entirely sculpted by hand. A guitar built for an artist receives the same care as every De Leeuw. With one difference: every detail is chosen with them, and for them — the woods, the neck dimensions, the pickups, the inlays, the top, the finish.
Before any build begins, we welcome the artist at our Paris showroom — or at a trunk show abroad: Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York, Seoul — to spend time with our instruments and choose the model, the woods, the pickups that suit them. When travel is not possible, two to three guitars can be sent to their studio for a week or two. Once the specifications are settled, the build begins. Four to six months later, the guitar is handed over in person.
Four disciplines — lutherie, fine cabinetmaking, marquetry, ornamental sculpture — brought together in a single instrument, under the hand of Quentin De Leeuw, Maître Artisan d'Art (master craftsman in the French métiers d'art).