Alternatives to Atma?

[lowmantotempole]

Driftwood Mini-Nightmare. Can't beat the features and power for the size.

 

[bigangryguitar]

There is a small box pwe event horizon on Reverb that should be great for what you want.

 

[the rossness]

Badger and pedals

 

[JerEvil]

Surprised no one has mentioned the Splawn Super Sport... great tones, solid loop.

 

[supersonic]

The Atma is a fantastic amp, it has the best clean channel of any amp IMO, I get great tones on the clean channel using a Bogner Blue, Arc Klone and Blue note, (all set low gain and stacked for different degrees of gain).
I use channel two set to medium gain and add one of the above ODs' if I want to get more grind.
Channel three is a bit misleading as it only adds gain and volume to channel 2, it will add compression and bass as the gain is turned up. What you really want when going from channel two to three is more cutting mids, volume and gain.
All of the tones are in there but accessing them on the fly is the tricky part. I'm yet to work it out but I suspect a switching system is needed to add eq and od to the solo channel would be the route.
As far as the boominess goes I have not had this problem, pick ups maybe? The Atma prefers an open back cab as a closed back can sound "boxy". I really like the "stiff" feel of the amp too. The Atma tones in an XTC layout would be my perfect amp.

At the risk of sounding argumentative, I gigged and recorded with this amp for several years (actually 3 of them), and used it with several different guitars, different cabs (closed and open back), and different speakers, so I feel like my opinion stated in the OP is pretty well informed. You and I seem to have had differing experiences with this amp- glad it's working out for you, though.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, it seems like the Runt 20 is still the best contender for this role. Gonna start looking for a used one, doesn't seem like they come up very often.

I didn't mention running OD pedals through the clean channel. Using a Bogner Blue pedal turns the ATMA into a mini XTC, I can compare directly as I've owned and gigged an XTC for 15 years. Bummer it hasn't worked out for you, it's a monster amp, even running through a 1x12.

 

[Zappatalist]

There is a small box pwe event horizon on Reverb that should be great for what you want.

Yeah, I saw that. I gave that some serious consideration, but I think it's a little larger/heavier than I'd ideally want at around 31 lbs... I'd like to keep it near 20 lbs. if at all possible.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Splawn Super Sport... great tones, solid loop.

Same here- the SS is/was definitely on my radar, but even the mini headbox is 35 lbs, which kind of defeats the purpose for me.

 

[peterc52]

I just bought a Wizard MC25. Haven't received it yet though