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Consider ATOMIC AMPS....read this first

IT IS WITH GREAT RELUCTANCE THAT I POST THIS !!!

This is not a inflamatory post. I just want to warn others so they don't go thru what I have gone thru.

I bought an atomic 112-50 from Insideout in the fall of last year. It was less then 6 monthes old. Itlasted for about 4 weeks and then it made a POP sound and I smelled something melting. It was @ 6 monthes old so after contacting IO about the problem I phoned to MR Tom King of atomic amps. He said no problem....he would take care of it. Well it took a few phone calls and a couple monthes to get it back. But there was a problem. IT didn't work at all. NO SOUND!!!.
I called him immediately and he was very apologetic. HE is a very nice guy. He emailed me a shipping label so I sent it back.
OK so at least 2 monthes went by again and I had basically given up on it. Then he emailed me and said that he had a new one or had it fixed and it was on it's way.

So I got it back. Well it lasted six days and BROKE again.

I called him again. He said he would take care of it but for me to call him the following week. I called him. No answer. I called again. No return phone call. I emailed him. NO ANSWER. It has been at least 2 monthes since I called. I've been really patient. But now I feel as though I'm hung out to dry.
IT's just terrible customer relations...period.

Just so you know
The unit broke in different places. with different surge suppressors and NO I didn't plug into a 220volt outlet or something. My jbl eon is still working fine in the same circumstances.

regards
paul (wogs 858)

Comments

  • That's terrible Paul!! Hope you get a refund or something? At this point I would be washing my hands of this thing & getting something else!! Hey not so long ago I bought a almost new condition off Ebay Crate Power Block as a spare backup & to use when I play outside of Church. No problems at all & it works good with the GNX4 IMOP. They can be had fairly cheap, have lots of power & seem very durable! Hey there not a tube amp BUT still pretty darn good amp! Just a thought bro.
  • This is exactly why I didn't get one (or two, like I was planning on doing). When I first e-mailed them, I experienced your last problem - no answer, no return calls, no communication whatsoever. If that's how they treat potential new customers... well... :?
  • This is what I would do.

    1. Buy another (good) amp. Crate powerblocks are grate (lollolololol)
    2. Use this atomic rubbish thing for parts. Take out the speaker and components and see what you can make. DIY FTW

    However that's what I would do... if you are not familiar with electronics it's probably not a good idea.
  • You know come to think of it I called him too talked about a Atmic 18 watt about 2 yrs ago very nice guy...said he'd get back to me because there was one he had left in stock he wanted to sell me ...never did call or return email... I ended up getting solid state with xlrs out so no mic like I would have had to do with the atomic. I saw an Atomic 18 watt in Musicgoround this weekend with a Vox tonelab in it for 299.00. didnt get it. no tubes for me 8)
  • That really sucks...I bought I/O's other Atomic around the same time...have gigged constantly with it, sounds great.

    I would take it to a different amp guy at this point, Atomic is such a small boutique operation, the guy may be overwhelmed...or you never know, he may be having health or family problems
  • Hi guys ...thanks for your replys. :)

    First off I want you to know that Tom has just sent me a tracking number for a amp that he sent today. I hate to say it but I'll have to wait and see it to believe it. I'm hoping that this is a happy ending to this. :?

    Also I want you all to know that after playing thru the atomic everything else sounded like junk to me. I'm sure there are other things like the stuff you all are using that sounds good but nothing I tried quite measured up.

    ILIace I think he needs help with communications or something. He called right after I posted this in a few websites. I told him that he has to reurn calls/emails. It just good bussiness. I told himm I could handle the truth even if it meant a long delay instead of silence. I don't know
    Plus I'm not sure he can keep up with demand. I've only read of one other prob like mine so I have my fingers crossed.

    Partch i did think about powerblock and I may pick one up even if it's for a back up.

    Hootman I know what you're saying and I have been ridiulously patient but wanting to throw in the towel.

    ODB Yes he's not very good and getting back to you. So are you happy with your sloid state?

    Cobalt...I Guess you got the GOOD one :twisted: :lol: Just kidding ...I'm glad that you haven't had any probs. I've read re

    I'll let you know how it goes

    wogs
  • I was originally looking at an atomic also. I e-mailed about 5 different times, and never got a response...That's OK though...because I ended up with a Mesa Boogie instead. :twisted:
  • Wait. So you guys thing Atomics are better than powered monitors? Iliace, I thought you were going through JBL Eons?
  • I have a jbl eon that I play thru. IMHO the atomic sounds much better. It has better tone and more controlled feedback in the high gain patches. More warmth in the middleground patches. I really do hope that this one has the durability that others have had with their atomics
  • For what it's worth: I have two Atomics. An original 112-18 and a 112-50. The first 112-18 I bought failed after one gig. Zzounds was selling it at the time and immediately shipped out a replacement. Tom King offered to drive down from Connecticut with an immediate replacement and pick up the defective unit (I'm near Philly). I thought that was a bit extreme but extremely appreciated. I never had a problem with the replacement that Zzounds provided. I haven't used the 112-18 much since I purchased the 112-50, which is just sweet, sweet, sweet and has an amazingly quiet full-volume idle.

    If you go back into the GNX2 archives on the old DigiTech site, you might still find a review of a load of powered monitors and amps that I did a few years back. I've tried a lot of stuff since my RP2000 (I'm currently using a POD-XTL-MW10-RP250 combination into my Atomic112-50), and grew up with tubes as the electronic paradigm. Maybe I'm old school, but the Atomics have been the best live-amp modeling experience that I've found, with the exception of my VHT-2:50/custom cabinet combination. Much better than the EFX returns and slave Ins on some tube combos and power amps. Now I'm a regular weekend-warrior and the amp gets used a lot and I don't worry about it and actually look forward to using it every time. A few weeks back I had to do a short but early gig with PITA logistics, so hand-carry transportability was a major consideration. I used my Tech21 PE60 and an RP250. I was spoiled by the 112-50 enough to wish I had brought it instead---and the PE60 is a nice SS rig (especially when you replace the stock Celestion with a Vintage-30).

    So my experience over the past four years with Atomics has been that (a) service is exceptional and (b) once past the first few hours (burn-in), they're a superior product.

    BTW, Tom generally responds quicker to phone calls. The website seems to always been an afterthought.

    Paj
    8^)
  • THIS THREAD IS POSTING OUT OF ORDER

    For THE RECORD
    Tom king is doing a great job of working with me now. He sent me a new amp and it is working great. He told me to give it a good thrashing and thats exactly what I'm gonna do.
    The amp sounds yummi :roll:

    I am hoping for smooth sailing and durability.....I will keep you posted
  • He got right back to ME within a day...on a used amp!!!
  • In my case, Tom has gone above and beyond for communication and customer satisfaction.

    ...and the amp goes above and beyond anything else I've owned.
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