Atomica #1

25 were made, I’d guess there’s no difference between any of the 25. Where you set the gain style switch on the back and the bright switch on the front WILL change the gain a LOT, also the knobs obviously. I bet what pickup is in the guitar and what’s in front of the amp will play a part and the speakers. That clip has the Bradshaw rig goodness going on too. YMMV.
 
Please, understand that I'm not trying to start another shit show about Cameron, and what I'm writing about is my own experience with his amps/mods, and not about what people say how their dealings with Mark turned out to be. So, if anyone wants to discuss this any further, I'll be more than glad to try and help with as much info as I can. But that will be about his amps and mods, how they perform and how they sound. And I'm only going to be talking about the ones I've had the experience to try out in person, and not from someone else's words or YouTube reviews.
That being said, the Brad era Atomica amps are all built the same, and they sound very similar to each other, since they were all built the same, aside from components tolerance, but very different from the original Mark Cameron Atomica.
Mark told me the Brad era Atomica is a simplified High Gain Jose, with a single gain control, a 3 way bright and a 3 way Diode Clipping switches, and not an original Atomica.
I do have a Brad era Atomica, and also a Mark Atomica mod done to a 72 SLP, and they could not sound more different one from the other. Plus, the original Atomica has no extra switches or push/pull pots, so it was just a Super Lead with a Jose Master and a slight different voicing, but that sounded really great. That's all according to Mark himself.
So, if you want to compare the Brad era Atomica to any Mark built or modded amp, it would be more fair doing it to a Mark Cameron High Gain Jose mod.
I also have a Mark modded SLP with his HG Jose, and of course, I did compare it to the Brad era Atomica. Of course, they also do sound completely different, but at least they do get close one from another in terms of gain and some of the similar features. And while the Brad Atomica is a great sounding amp, as soon as you plug into a Mark modded HG Jose, you'll understand why people go bananas for his build and mods.
The way I put it is like this... the Brad era Atomica and Old Bitch, are incredible sounding amps, and are right there with most of the great ones, like a VH4, Ecstasy, Engls, Friedman, EVH, Mesa, Soldano, etc... the real Mark Cameron made stuff is way above all those.
Below are the Cameron I talked about(from top to bottom), 72 Aldrich(former Psycho Dave), 97 SLP with HG Jose, 72 Atomica and Brad era Atomica.
LnfF7YOl.jpg
 
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SBlue said:
Please, understand that I'm not trying to start another shit show about Cameron, and what I'm writing about is my own experience with his amps/mods, and not about what people say how their dealings with Mark turned out to be. So, if anyone wants to discuss this any further, I'll be more than glad to try and help with as much info as I can. But that will be about his amps and mods, how they perform and how they sound. And I'm only going to be talking about the ones I've had the experience to try out in person, and not from someone else's words or YouTube reviews.
That being said, the Brad era Atomica amps are all built the same, and they sound very similar to each other, since they were all built the same, aside from components tolerance, but very different from the original Mark Cameron Atomica.
Mark told me the Brad era Atomica is a simplified High Gain Jose, with a single gain control, a 3 way bright and a 3 way Diode Clipping switches, and not an original Atomica.
I do have a Brad era Atomica, and also a Mark Atomica mod done to a 72 SLP, and they could not sound more different one from the other. Plus, the original Atomica has no extra switches or push/pull pots, so it was just a Super Lead with a Jose Master and a slight different voicing, but that sounded really great. That's all according to Mark himself.
So, if you want to compare the Brad era Atomica to any Mark built or modded amp, it would be more fair doing it to a Mark Cameron High Gain Jose mod.
I also have a Mark modded SLP with his HG Jose, and of course, I did compare it to the Brad era Atomica. Of course, they also do sound completely different, but at least they do get close one from another in terms of gain and some of the similar features. And while the Brad Atomica is a great sounding amp, as soon as you plug into a Mark modded HG Jose, you'll understand why people go bananas for his build and mods.
The way I put it is like this... the Brad era Atomica and Old Bitch, are incredible sounding amps, and are right there with most of the great ones, like a VH4, Ecstasy, Engls, Friedman, EVH, Mesa, Soldano, etc... the real Mark Cameron made stuff is way above all those.
Below are the Cameron I talked about(from top to bottom), 72 Aldrich(former Psycho Dave), 97 SLP with HG Jose, 72 Atomica and Brad era Atomica.
LnfF7YOl.jpg
Click to expand...
nice assortment and comparison.
in addition to the production atomica zach owned other cameron modded marshalls but none sounded as good as his atomica. i got to play through those as well as a couple of mark’s modded bassman heads, with mark himself at the helm. always a treat and he indeed has a special ability with perfecting the hard rock sound.
 
SBlue said:
Please, understand that I'm not trying to start another shit show about Cameron, and what I'm writing about is my own experience with his amps/mods, and not about what people say how their dealings with Mark turned out to be. So, if anyone wants to discuss this any further, I'll be more than glad to try and help with as much info as I can. But that will be about his amps and mods, how they perform and how they sound. And I'm only going to be talking about the ones I've had the experience to try out in person, and not from someone else's words or YouTube reviews.
That being said, the Brad era Atomica amps are all built the same, and they sound very similar to each other, since they were all built the same, aside from components tolerance, but very different from the original Mark Cameron Atomica.
Mark told me the Brad era Atomica is a simplified High Gain Jose, with a single gain control, a 3 way bright and a 3 way Diode Clipping switches, and not an original Atomica.
I do have a Brad era Atomica, and also a Mark Atomica mod done to a 72 SLP, and they could not sound more different one from the other. Plus, the original Atomica has no extra switches or push/pull pots, so it was just a Super Lead with a Jose Master and a slight different voicing, but that sounded really great. That's all according to Mark himself.
So, if you want to compare the Brad era Atomica to any Mark built or modded amp, it would be more fair doing it to a Mark Cameron High Gain Jose mod.
I also have a Mark modded SLP with his HG Jose, and of course, I did compare it to the Brad era Atomica. Of course, they also do sound completely different, but at least they do get close one from another in terms of gain and some of the similar features. And while the Brad Atomica is a great sounding amp, as soon as you plug into a Mark modded HG Jose, you'll understand why people go bananas for his build and mods.
The way I put it is like this... the Brad era Atomica and Old Bitch, are incredible sounding amps, and are right there with most of the great ones, like a VH4, Ecstasy, Engls, Friedman, EVH, Mesa, Soldano, etc... the real Mark Cameron made stuff is way above all those.
Below are the Cameron I talked about(from top to bottom), 72 Aldrich(former Psycho Dave), 97 SLP with HG Jose, 72 Atomica and Brad era Atomica.
LnfF7YOl.jpg
Click to expand...
Damn dude! You are giving Rockinchippy a run for his money in the Cameron department! I thought he was undoubtedly the Lord of Cameron acquisitions, but perhaps not….. It seems your tone library is more extensive than I thought.

What a shame cameron can’t get it together. Suckerfreegears reign as his latest baby sitter gets amps out occasionally with no fear of the cameron repercussions. Think if he could do what Friedman did. Whoa…. His amps sound so good. I had a 50 watt aldrich that was so bad ass. It was a destructive force of total tone annihilation crushing every amp in its path, neutralizing the very best, leaving a trail of dead and dismembered amps in its mighty wake. Oh, how I miss it.
 
I tried a Cameron Atomica back in 2012 at Tone Merchants and wasn’t blown away like I was hoping to be at the time. I did though have a 2002 Marshall SLP RI that Dave did the Atomica mod to (reluctantly he did it) that to me sounded much better. I compared it to 3 different Cameron Jose modded Marshall’s I had and it sounded almost the same as them except for one of them, which was different than all. I think all that delay and fx can fool the ear into thinking the amp is better than it is. If it were a dry close mic’d demo I don’t think guys would be as wowed by it. It’s easy to make almost any amp sound good in the context of a roomy clip with lots of delay or reverb
 
Techdeth said:
When the new Camerons come out the first thing we will hear is the old ones are better . Even without comparing
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It seems to be more about it not being Brad era rather than older or newer. As long as it’s Mark made I don’t think it’ll matter to guys if it’s newer or older. I’ve played Mark made CCV’s that were pre and post Brad era and they were to me equally good even though they vary of course. I never actually tried a Brad era CCV. I only tried from Brad era an old bitch and Atomica and wasn’t as impressed from what I remember
 
SBlue said:
Please, understand that I'm not trying to start another shit show about Cameron, and what I'm writing about is my own experience with his amps/mods, and not about what people say how their dealings with Mark turned out to be. So, if anyone wants to discuss this any further, I'll be more than glad to try and help with as much info as I can. But that will be about his amps and mods, how they perform and how they sound. And I'm only going to be talking about the ones I've had the experience to try out in person, and not from someone else's words or YouTube reviews.
That being said, the Brad era Atomica amps are all built the same, and they sound very similar to each other, since they were all built the same, aside from components tolerance, but very different from the original Mark Cameron Atomica.
Mark told me the Brad era Atomica is a simplified High Gain Jose, with a single gain control, a 3 way bright and a 3 way Diode Clipping switches, and not an original Atomica.
I do have a Brad era Atomica, and also a Mark Atomica mod done to a 72 SLP, and they could not sound more different one from the other. Plus, the original Atomica has no extra switches or push/pull pots, so it was just a Super Lead with a Jose Master and a slight different voicing, but that sounded really great. That's all according to Mark himself.
So, if you want to compare the Brad era Atomica to any Mark built or modded amp, it would be more fair doing it to a Mark Cameron High Gain Jose mod.
I also have a Mark modded SLP with his HG Jose, and of course, I did compare it to the Brad era Atomica. Of course, they also do sound completely different, but at least they do get close one from another in terms of gain and some of the similar features. And while the Brad Atomica is a great sounding amp, as soon as you plug into a Mark modded HG Jose, you'll understand why people go bananas for his build and mods.
The way I put it is like this... the Brad era Atomica and Old Bitch, are incredible sounding amps, and are right there with most of the great ones, like a VH4, Ecstasy, Engls, Friedman, EVH, Mesa, Soldano, etc... the real Mark Cameron made stuff is way above all those.
Below are the Cameron I talked about(from top to bottom), 72 Aldrich(former Psycho Dave), 97 SLP with HG Jose, 72 Atomica and Brad era Atomica.
LnfF7YOl.jpg
Click to expand...

That's because the Brad era Atomicas were Friedman's take on what the circuit could be... Cameron quit before that amp was designed. He basically did the 2 original CCV prototypes and provided boards from the previous iteration of the company he had and sketched the Aldrich preamp. Those were his contributions to that company. At that point he hadn't been paid anything and they were asking for more designs so he left.

That is a damn fine Cameron collection... can't wait for somebody to start tossing shade at you because you dare to own the amps lmfao
 
braintheory said:
It seems to be more about it not being Brad era rather than older or newer. As long as it’s Mark made I don’t think it’ll matter to guys if it’s newer or older. I’ve played Mark made CCV’s that were pre and post Brad era and they were to me equally good even though they vary of course. I never actually tried a Brad era CCV. I only tried from Brad era an old bitch and Atomica and wasn’t as impressed from what I remember
Click to expand...
I’m talking about the ones coming out this year
 
Techdeth said:
I’m talking about the ones coming out this year
Click to expand...
If they actually come out… I don’t think they’ll be less desirable if they do though. Just my prediction

Some amps like Wizards, Naylor’s, Cameron and Alessandro’s seemed to thankfully stay as good as ever (from what I’ve owned) rather than all ones that went downhill like Diezel, Bogner, Boogie etc from their early amps
 
Although as you pointed out, that amp isn't close mic'd and dry but the way it sits in that clip has more to do with that particular amp. We can disagree that just about any amp will sound like this because they don't.

It was also pointed out that Mark may have done more to this amp than the rest of the production amps after it. You yourself made mention of one of yours being better than the others and there's always a reason for it. Some amps have it and some don't but when a good one has someone like Mark tune it that is the magic in the best amps made. Hopefully you still have the Cameron that was your favorite.
 
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