How to use the Panama amp in a patch

[Indianrock2020]

Patch for the Panama ( Peavey 5150)  -- any general ideas on this?  I've created some awesome tones with the remastered Brit 2204 in the metal pack, but the Panama needs some major taming.  I'd love to get a tone like Van Halen's Panama.

[duncann]

Keep the drive rather low, 25-30 (it becomes way too fizzy otherwise), and throw a tube compressor in front of it with zero level and 50-60 threshold. Keep the master DEP around 50. Use dual cabs or mics if you can spare the dsp. I like the blackbacks with the 87 cond and 57 on axis.

 

I'm not really sure if the above would be considered a Van Halen tone, but they are some of the settings I used in one of my songs.

[Indianrock2020]

I use dual amps quite a bit.   Did you mean put in two of the Panamas? or pair it with something else

[duncann]

Yes. Two Panamas with identical settings except slightly different drives. One 26 and one 30. I've noticed that you can get different tones with this amp - subtle but noticeable - just by setting the drives different.

[bjnette]

I'll second dunncan on lowering the drive on the Panama to about a third to near half way. It still drives well but over 50% it is too washy with gain.

[BillBee]

That is probably the most gainy amp we have and the hotter the pickups you have the lower the gain you might want to try. Like the others I like it at 25-30% and even lower if I have 16-17 ohms in the bridge.