“An end to 100 years of service to the music community”: Why the closure of Sam Ash marked the end of an era

2024 Year in Review: In March, retail giant Sam Ash Music announced it was preparing to close 18 of its 44 locations across the U.S., including its Manhattan flagship store.

Two months later, the company revealed it would be going out of business and liquidating the remaining 27 stores, bringing an end to 100 years of service to the music community.

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Amit has been writing for titles like Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences as a guitar player. He’s worked for magazines like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog, Record Collector, Planet Rock, Rhythm and Bass Player, as well as newspapers like Metro and The Independent, interviewing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he’s played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handled lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).