Guitar Gear Forum

Hey y'all, Happy New Year (almost)!

I'm gdsmithtx from the burbs of Houston. I'm a hack guitarist, and a 5+ year veteran of HCEG (as well as various other forums like mwgl, tdpri, tgp, mylespaul, strat talk, dimarzio, seymour duncan, etc.). I just stumbled across mention of this forum on the markweinguitarlessons forum, so I took a look and liked what I saw.

I'm a crappy blues/jazz/classic rock player who took up guitar again 5 years ago — after a decade of almost never playing — to combat computer-related repetitive stress disorder in my hands. Worked like a charm! Of course the downside is that the GAS has cost me about as much money as the RSD surgery on both hands would have cost. On the upside, though, I'm a better guitar player than I ever was (pretty low bar), and I have another hobby besides reading, movies and drinking.

Guitars: A couple of strats, a couple of acoustics, a couple of semi-hollows, an SG, a P90 LP-type, and an Ibanez SZ520 (quasi-PRS type).

Amps: Panama Shaman Retro 20w tube head; Panama Road Series 1x12 cab; Bugera v22 1x12 tube combo; Ibanez TSA-15 1x12 tube combo; Fender Mustang IIIv2 1x12 combo; Fender Super Champ XD 1x10 combo.

Most everything I have is modified to a greater or lesser degree. I'm a tinkerer.

Welcome to GAB!

And tell me about that Panama amp! Been curious about the little 5 watter that I keep seeing on reverb.

itchyfingers wrote:And tell me about that Panama amp! Been curious about the little 5 watter that I keep seeing on reverb.

Thanks.

The Shaman Retro is pretty damned good in the tones it can achieve. As the name implies, you won't get a sustained modern metal sound out of it. But you can get a lot of great vintage sounds, and it can confidently manage everything through 80s metal/grunge. I've only had it a few weeks, so no tube changes yet.

It's also gorgeous, with a high quality appearance including a purple figured wood facing, and tidy black-&-blue two-tone Tolex all around.

My only gripe is this: I'm getting a bit too much noise in "pushed" modes. I'm trying to isolate it (cables, instrument, tubes, power, etc.), and I've sent a polite inquiry to Panama's customer service. Time will tell how it works out.

The annoying (though not by any means fatal) noise aside, it's a wonderful, versatile amp for the player just like me that likes blues/jazz/classic rock. It kinda makes me want a 2x12 half stack to plug it into. The speakers they use are OEM unbranded, WGS-made cones. The one in this combo is the WGS Veteran 30, a Celestion v30 clone with more mids.

Here's a Reverb demonstration video (features almost the same 1x12 cab I have):

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX5G_pisZQs[/video]

Their Black Friday sale was 30% off, so I ended up with the amp head and 1x12 cab for only $520.

Welcome from Austin!