Okay, so I've had my Atma for a few weeks now and thought I'd provide an update toward how I am liking it so far.
I have to say that the versatility of great sounds that I am achieving from this amp are impressive!
I have only played it at home so far, and mostly in 5w mode. Why some may ask???
Quite frankly, even though I live in a home......I had to watch my volume settings of Ch2 & 3 (especially in 70's mode) while playing through my Avatar Vintage 112 cab with V30 speaker. It is surprisingly loud considering the size of the amp!!
Personally, I know there would not be any lack of volume for me to use this amp unmic'ed with my band for a small venue (75-100 people). That said, I don't play in a super loud band either.
I do prefer the sound of the amp with my Avatar 112 w/ vintage 30 in the open back configuration. In general, it just sounds better to me with my guitars and how I like it to sound.
Also, I have purchased a G12M-25W Greenback speaker that I intent to load into my Avatar Vintage 112 cab, but haven't had the chance to do so yet. It will be an interesting experiment.....
Pros:
1. Clean channel can be set to sound fantastic at various settings even though it only offers a single tone control, but also has a dedicated volume control. Personally, I am very pleasantly surprised at how many great sounds that I am achieving out of this channel alone. That said, I do find the Ch1 tone toggle switch pretty much needs to be set to "bright" for me to achieve the great sounds that I am after. Frankly, I doubt that I would ever find a use for setting that toggle switch to medium or dark.....at least with my guitars, my cabinets and my tonal preferences.
2. I love the versatility in Ch2 & 3 with the 60's, 70's & 80's toggle switch. WOW what a difference they all make!! I do need to set the treble, middle, bass controls differently between these 3 modes, but I find it easy to dial in great sounds in all offerings!
3. While Ch2 & Ch3 share the same EQ knobs, I am very pleased with these two channels always sounding similar for the given mode that you have selected (i.e. 60s, 70s, 80s). While Ch2 and Ch3 share the same treble, middle, bass tone controls they each have an independent volume control which is excellent. More importantly, you can "dial back" the amount of gain in Ch2 compared to Ch3 with a knob located in the back! Some may ask....why in the world would I ever want to "dial back" the gain setting of Ch2 compared to Ch3. Try it....you will like it!!
4. I love that it is a small portable amp with a great big sound (i.e. set to 18w through my 112 cab sounds huge)! I also love the fact that it can be set to 5w and 1w! It even sounds decent in 1w mode and can be set fairly loud. For those that live in an apartment, 1w mode can be set to upset the neighbors if you choose to do so......of course, it can also be set to whisper quite while still feeling decent to play.
5. I love how well the 80's mode "cleans up" with the roll off of my guitar volume knob. This is especially true while playing in Ch2 with the gain setting fairly low....(front panel Ch3 setting of 10 or 11 o'clock with Ch2 gain setting reduced in the back to about 50%). In fact, I like it so much that I even use this feature a lot!! Very fun to play my Suhr guitar in the neck single coil position of "position 4" for some very cool semi clean sounds in this mode with guitar volume rolled back!!
6. The amp also offers a "Vintage/Modern" toggle switch in the back. So far, I prefer the "Modern" setting in general. Surprisingly, the "Vintage" setting seems to be louder than "Modern" with less definition. That said, I haven't been able to really crank this amp up yet.....so.....it could just be that at my preferred volume settings the "Modern" voicing sounds better to me.
7. It weighs 15 pounds and offers some incredible sounds and flexibility (3 footswitchable settings)!
Cons:
1. I wish this amp had a standby switch. Not a big deal, but I really don't like the "pop" that I hear every time I power it off even though it should be expected and don't think it is cause for alarm.
2. I do wish there was a closer range of sounds with the Ch1 Bright, Mid, Dark toggle switch. Personally, I can never see myself setting it to "Dark" and seldom even to "Medium" for that matter.
However, there are times when I feel that setting it to "Bright" might be a bit too bright.....especially when setting the tone knob of Ch1 fairly low while playing a single coil strat type guitar.
3. Minor nitpick, but I wish the footswitch had either 3 independent footswitches "i.e. one for each channel"......or at least gave some sort of indication which of the gain channels (Ch2 or Ch3) were "in standby" while playing in the clean channel. Basically, when you are in the clean channel.....no lights are on with the footswitch which is no problem. But, unless you remember where the last setting was for Ch2 or Ch3, you have no idea which of those two channels you will be switching to from the clean channel. That said, it certainly isn't a big deal to me, but would be a nice to have.
Thanks for reading....overall, I am loving this amp for my needs!!
I have to say that the versatility of great sounds that I am achieving from this amp are impressive!
I have only played it at home so far, and mostly in 5w mode. Why some may ask???
Quite frankly, even though I live in a home......I had to watch my volume settings of Ch2 & 3 (especially in 70's mode) while playing through my Avatar Vintage 112 cab with V30 speaker. It is surprisingly loud considering the size of the amp!!
Personally, I know there would not be any lack of volume for me to use this amp unmic'ed with my band for a small venue (75-100 people). That said, I don't play in a super loud band either.
I do prefer the sound of the amp with my Avatar 112 w/ vintage 30 in the open back configuration. In general, it just sounds better to me with my guitars and how I like it to sound.
Also, I have purchased a G12M-25W Greenback speaker that I intent to load into my Avatar Vintage 112 cab, but haven't had the chance to do so yet. It will be an interesting experiment.....
Pros:
1. Clean channel can be set to sound fantastic at various settings even though it only offers a single tone control, but also has a dedicated volume control. Personally, I am very pleasantly surprised at how many great sounds that I am achieving out of this channel alone. That said, I do find the Ch1 tone toggle switch pretty much needs to be set to "bright" for me to achieve the great sounds that I am after. Frankly, I doubt that I would ever find a use for setting that toggle switch to medium or dark.....at least with my guitars, my cabinets and my tonal preferences.
2. I love the versatility in Ch2 & 3 with the 60's, 70's & 80's toggle switch. WOW what a difference they all make!! I do need to set the treble, middle, bass controls differently between these 3 modes, but I find it easy to dial in great sounds in all offerings!
3. While Ch2 & Ch3 share the same EQ knobs, I am very pleased with these two channels always sounding similar for the given mode that you have selected (i.e. 60s, 70s, 80s). While Ch2 and Ch3 share the same treble, middle, bass tone controls they each have an independent volume control which is excellent. More importantly, you can "dial back" the amount of gain in Ch2 compared to Ch3 with a knob located in the back! Some may ask....why in the world would I ever want to "dial back" the gain setting of Ch2 compared to Ch3. Try it....you will like it!!
4. I love that it is a small portable amp with a great big sound (i.e. set to 18w through my 112 cab sounds huge)! I also love the fact that it can be set to 5w and 1w! It even sounds decent in 1w mode and can be set fairly loud. For those that live in an apartment, 1w mode can be set to upset the neighbors if you choose to do so......of course, it can also be set to whisper quite while still feeling decent to play.
5. I love how well the 80's mode "cleans up" with the roll off of my guitar volume knob. This is especially true while playing in Ch2 with the gain setting fairly low....(front panel Ch3 setting of 10 or 11 o'clock with Ch2 gain setting reduced in the back to about 50%). In fact, I like it so much that I even use this feature a lot!! Very fun to play my Suhr guitar in the neck single coil position of "position 4" for some very cool semi clean sounds in this mode with guitar volume rolled back!!
6. The amp also offers a "Vintage/Modern" toggle switch in the back. So far, I prefer the "Modern" setting in general. Surprisingly, the "Vintage" setting seems to be louder than "Modern" with less definition. That said, I haven't been able to really crank this amp up yet.....so.....it could just be that at my preferred volume settings the "Modern" voicing sounds better to me.
7. It weighs 15 pounds and offers some incredible sounds and flexibility (3 footswitchable settings)!
Cons:
1. I wish this amp had a standby switch. Not a big deal, but I really don't like the "pop" that I hear every time I power it off even though it should be expected and don't think it is cause for alarm.
2. I do wish there was a closer range of sounds with the Ch1 Bright, Mid, Dark toggle switch. Personally, I can never see myself setting it to "Dark" and seldom even to "Medium" for that matter.
However, there are times when I feel that setting it to "Bright" might be a bit too bright.....especially when setting the tone knob of Ch1 fairly low while playing a single coil strat type guitar.
3. Minor nitpick, but I wish the footswitch had either 3 independent footswitches "i.e. one for each channel"......or at least gave some sort of indication which of the gain channels (Ch2 or Ch3) were "in standby" while playing in the clean channel. Basically, when you are in the clean channel.....no lights are on with the footswitch which is no problem. But, unless you remember where the last setting was for Ch2 or Ch3, you have no idea which of those two channels you will be switching to from the clean channel. That said, it certainly isn't a big deal to me, but would be a nice to have.
Thanks for reading....overall, I am loving this amp for my needs!!
