Elliott Dean Rubinson is known in the music industry as "the boss who rocks". He's the CEO and owner of Dean Guitars, ddrum and Luna Guitars. He's also a world-class bassist who has toured with Michael Schenker, Michael Angelo Batio and Uli Jon Roth.

Dave Reffett recently sat down with Elliott for Guitar World, to talk about his career and current projects. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Q: Dean is interesting in that it has legacy artists like Leslie West in addition to newer artists like Jacky Vincent. How has Dean been able to accomplish this, and what's next for the company?

A: "Growing up as a bassist, I loved some of the guys like Leslie West, Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Vinnie Moore, etc., and I wanted to make sure these guys became the cornerstone of what we were doing because, let's face it, these are the guitarists who influenced everyone of our generation.

More than once I've looked on the side of the stage or in the audience, and Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield came out to see Schenker or Roth. These guys know what an inspiration some of the Dean artists are. That said, there are some great new guitarists who we are proud to have in the family, like Jacky Vincent or Zoltan of Five Finger Death Punch. We want to stay relevant to all ages, and I think when guys like this see how we treat our artists and how easy it is to work with Dean Guitars, they tell their peers and in turn they come to talk with us. I'm very proud of what we have built here in Florida."

Q: What advantage do you think Dean has over its competitors?

A: "The number 1 thing is the fact that our company is a band of great musicians who love to be surrounded by music and instruments. There are so many gigging musicians here who road test the instruments on stage and report back. This is invaluable.

Just being able to make instruments that are balanced correctly, play properly and sound great cannot be done strictly in the corporate world. In addition, some of our competitors simply cannot make decisions and changes as nimbly as we do. We can sit down with an artist and make the decision to do a signature guitar for him on the spot. No board meetings, no voting, no two-month lag. Just a, "Yes, we can do this." I see this as being a huge advantage."

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