Yamaha THR10 which one

Jez6345789

Hi 
I had the THR10 from the start and used it a lot for both practice and recording. It has the broadest range of sounds. 
I had it for a couple of years and the Yamaha did a firmware update that gave some extra I left it another few moths did the upgrade which killed it stone dead everything powered up but it was stuck in update mode.

I contacted Yamaha Service and was told out of warranty piss off basically if you have read any of my posts since the start I have been a strong advocate for THR. So at that moment I was very pissed with Yamaha as I said if I had known the firmware update would of bricked I would of left well alone. 

All that after a couple of months I missed not having it around and went out and bought another one but a THR10c this time as I fancied some of the tones more. In some ways I miss the extra drive and distortion of the original as most of the models are lower gain but you can put a pedal in front of it and it works fine as long as its not too OTT.

So despite the bricking incident I still keep one around and I use it more than the Kemper to be honest around the house gets way more hours of use for general day to day noodling. 

So I would say the original but try all of them 

jonnyburgo

I have the THR 10x and it is excellent, Im not a shredder by any means but it does so much more than that, has the clean channel which is lovely, the bass channel is also mighty fain for guitar. The other models go from edge of break up JTM-ish through to the chugga chuggas. Its great and every model is usable, just wind back the gain. The reverbs are really nice and the tiny stereo speakers sound nice and expansive at living room volumes. also gets pretty loud if you want it too. I dont really do chorus or flangers etc but they sound good enough. So yes the 10x is a revelation.

Jez6345789

Still interested to try th THR10x as like Jonnyburgo says people always say they clean up real nice and might be the most versatile of them all so don't rule one out. I never got to try one as they out of stock when I got the 10c

olafgarten

I also don't get the constant praise for the THR, they are good, but not that much better than any other modelling amps. I actually prefer the small stereo Blackstars. 

Voxman

I don't know whether this is a case of 'the emperors new clothes' but am I the only one here who thinks these things look horrible (like an old school transistor radio) and sound average (compared to other gear out there)?

I haven't heard all the new versions admittedly but I tried one about 6 months ago (just the original THR10 I think) only because of all the rave reviews here and on other forums.  These things IMHO are over-priced, the tones are decent but nothing special, speakers are small and whilst they are not bad for home use there are plenty of small amps that cost a lot less, have more tonal range and more features, and have proper speakers that to my ears sound way better.  OK, I know they're 'stereo' but I have a 2x12 stereo amp - and I can tell you that even on a big amp it makes bugger all difference simply because you need much wider speaker spacing for true stereo sound.

I mean these things sell for around £255 - for that money you can get an amp that sounds great at home and you can seriously gig with.  For example, and I haven't heard one 'live' yet, but the demo's and reports on the Boss Katana 50w at only £165 suggest this thing sounds superb, has great features, and is an absolute bargain!  or £250 you can get the 50w Katana with floor controller, or the 100w Katana. 

A Vox Valvetronix VT20X is only around £155, a VT40X around £210, a Fender Mustang II (40w, 12" speaker) around £160, a 100w Mustang III is around £250, and a new Vox AV15 around £200 etc.  

Yamaha THR series? - sorry guys, but I just don't get it!? 

equalsql

Another THR10 standard user here.  It really is great little amp and the crunch tones are particularly good. You can get that classic SRV tone very easily.

I like the small size as it's great for carting around. It's rather greedy on batteries though.

equalsql

Jez6345789 said:

...

I contacted Yamaha Service and was told out of warranty piss off basically if you have read any of my posts since the start I have been a strong advocate for THR. So at that moment I was very pissed with Yamaha as I said if I had known the firmware update would of bricked I would of left well alone.

Blimey @Jez6345789, that's well out of order for  Yamaha. As they provided the update it's not your fault that it bricked. I did the upgrade myself and it was a simple enough procedure. For it to go wrong certainly implies an inherent fault with the amp in the first place.   

Beexter

Voxman said:

I don't know whether this is a case of 'the emperors new clothes' but am I the only one here who thinks these things look horrible (like an old school transistor radio) and sound average (compared to other gear out there)? I haven't heard all the new versions admittedly but I tried one about 6 months ago (just the original THR10 I think) only because of all the rave reviews here and on other forums.  These things IMHO are over-priced, the tones are decent but nothing special, speakers are small and whilst they are not bad for home use there are plenty of small amps that cost a lot less, have more tonal range and more features, and have proper speakers that to my ears sound way better.   

I mean these things sell for around £250 - for that money you can get an amp that sounds great at home and you can seriously gig with.  For example, and I haven't heard one 'live' yet, but the demo's and reports on the Boss Katana 50w at only £165 suggest this thing sounds superb, has great features, and is an absolute bargain!  or £250 you can get the 50w Katana with floor controller, or the 100w Katana. 

Yamaha THR series? - sorry guys, but I just don't get it!? 

I agree that they are expensive for what they are. However, what I think they do better than any other amp I have tried is create a good sounding and feeling tone at ultra-low volumes. By ultra-low, i mean that i can hear the sound of the strings on the guitar. It means that I can practise late at night without headphones without bothering anyone (even my wife who can hear a mouse fart at 1/2 mile away).

Over the years, I've tried many practise solutions including POD's & multi-fx through headphones, valve amps turned down low, Roland Cubes, Boss Micro BR etc, etc, etc, With it's size, convenience (battery power if needed), Aux input, good range of tones and overall performance at ultra-low volume, the THR is my fave by quite some margin. I've collected a lot of kit over the years and my two main amps at present are an Orange Rocker 30 and a Mesa Express 5:25+, neither of which could be said to be lacking in the tone department. However, for low volume home practise, the THR is what i plug into.

I know they are not everyone's cup of tea, but for my needs, it ticks all the boxes. If it went bang, I'd certainly try one of the Blackstar offerings before running out to replace it but I think it achieves what it was designed to do. 

jellyroll

Voxman said:

Yamaha THR series? - sorry guys, but I just don't get it!? 

A big part of the "it" is that they can sit fairly innocuously on a coffee table in the "family room" without causing domestic rage. I agree that the sounds are so-so. I hated the gain sounds on the 10, clean was ok. I sold mine.

DiscoStu

I love my THR10. It looks great and sits next to my TV and stereo without screaming 'guitar amp' at you. Most folk think it's a retro radio and my g/f approves.
The tones work for me, so much so that I have yet to play around with the editing software having owned it several years. Master volume is rarely past 12 o'clock.
I can't imagine a Blackstar blending in to the living room quite the same... 

YMMV.

rivercider

I've got a THR10X which I'm actually selling (more gain than I really need) as I now want the standard 10 model, I also had a 10C which I sold as I needed cash at that time, but would like to buy again for the bedroom.....but no way would I be without some sort of THR in the house.  The 10C had enough gain for my humbuckers but when playing a telecaster or strat through it there wasn't quite enough for me most of the time, although the Matchless model cranked was close. I then overcompensated by getting the crazy-gain 10X. The X does, however, also have the lovely Clean model from the 10C on it, think it's based on a Deluxe Reverb, I use that a lot.
The wife allows me to keep one on the bookshelf by the sofa so it gets to be played when the TV is on, something I can't do with my bigger amp .... sounds great at low volumes, far better than traditional practice amps, plus I tend to put a phone or iPad on top of it by the handle, plug in to the Aux and jam to YouTube backing tracks quite a lot.  Any time I've done that with a single speaker traditional practice amp it sounds awful but this thing does it like a champ.  It even gets used as an iPad/iPhone dock in its own right in my house occasionally - pretty versatile little beast. 

eldarvanyar

It sounds like the standard THR10 is the one to go for my needs.
I really like the idea of the Boss Katana 50w for small gigs.
Thanks for all the input everyone. 
I am enjoying the forum it seems pretty friendly, and lots of useful things. 

RandallFlagg

Philip Sayce makes his TRH10 sound amazing, with a Tube Screamer and Wah:

stimpsonslostson

I was sold on mine after watching the Soren Anderson promo videos. 
My biggest tip for using the THR is that placement is key- your ears shouldnt be way above the amp. It's designed to live on a shelf or table. 
I wasn't convinced by mine till I moved it around a few times, now it lives on a shelf & sounds great for my needs. 

bingefeller

eldarvanyar said:

It sounds like the standard THR10 is the one to go for my needs.
I really like the idea of the Boss Katana 50w for small gigs.
Thanks for all the input everyone. 
I am enjoying the forum it seems pretty friendly, and lots of useful things. 

Don't judge it until you mess around with the editor via your Mac / PC.  You really need to play around with the different cabs as well to get the best sound from the amp IMO.  

If you couldn't edit the THR via your computer then I wouldn't rate it as being very good at all to be honest.  There are some good patches on guitarpatches.com.  

eldarvanyar

I went for the THR10 v2 after the comments as that seems the most suitable one for me.

My wife even likes the look of it 

I got a great deal from BAX Music during the recent black Friday period. 

I haven't had a chance to try it yet though. 

Life is just too busy at the moment. 

ICBM

I know I'm coming very, very late to the party on this, but until yesterday I'd never played a THR10. I suppose that since they seem to never break down, I'm not very likely to come across one… mostly I only see amps when they fail. I had played the THR100 (thanks to @rossyamaha) and was very impressed by that, but have never liked any clips I've heard of the 10, so I was really unsure what I would find when @AuldReekie let me have a go with the one he just picked up.

First off, on the Clean sound, I thought it was instantly my favourite desktop/bedroom amp. It has a really big, solid sound that other small amps don't seem to, yet without being overpoweringly bassy. The next two sounds surprised me by having far less gain than I expected - Crunch is barely more than a lightly clipped clean, and even Lead is no more than a mild crunch by comparison with most other digital amps… it's only when you get to Brit Hi that it really starts to be seriously overdriven. So far so good since I usually use very light overdrive. But - I really didn't like the tone. Even though it can do a quite convincing Ritchie Blackmore 'barky' crunch on the Brit Hi setting, the actual overdrive character is very gritty and buzzy - there's a nasty separated distortion which seems to sit on top of the clean sound and which cuts off abruptly as the level decays, which is something I very often hear (and always hate) about digital distortion. The Modern sound was just terrible really, very harsh and grainy.

I did briefly try the Acoustic and Flat settings with an acoustic guitar too - it actually sounds much better on Flat, quite usable and natural. Acoustic was dull and muffled-sounding, no good at all. Didn't try Bass with a bass, although it sounded sort-of OK with a guitar, but rather too soft and a bit dull for what I would want it to sound like with a bass, I think.

So… hmmm. One great sound, one good one, four bad ones and a cartoony classic rock sound that I probably wouldn't use much - it's unfortunate that the distorted sounds are so poor when the clean is so good. I still much prefer my little Vox for overdriven sounds even though it's still a 'small' sounding amp, and is definitely not as well made as the Yamaha. Whether the Yamaha would be better if used as a clean platform for pedals, I didn't get around to trying. (Got distracted by his new Blade Strat .)

It hasn't put me off the THR100 though, they sound very different to me.

simonk

ICBM said:

I know I'm coming very, very late to the party on this, but until yesterday I'd never played a THR10. I suppose that since they seem to never break down, I'm not very likely to come across one… mostly I only see amps when they fail. I had played the THR100 (thanks to @rossyamaha) and was very impressed by that, but have never liked any clips I've heard of the 10, so I was really unsure what I would find when @AuldReekie let me have a go with the one he just picked up.

First off, on the Clean sound, I thought it was instantly my favourite desktop/bedroom amp. It has a really big, solid sound that other small amps don't seem to, yet without being overpoweringly bassy. The next two sounds surprised me by having far less gain than I expected - Crunch is barely more than a lightly clipped clean, and even Lead is no more than a mild crunch by comparison with most other digital amps… it's only when you get to Brit Hi that it really starts to be seriously overdriven. So far so good since I usually use very light overdrive. But - I really didn't like the tone. Even though it can do a quite convincing Ritchie Blackmore 'barky' crunch on the Brit Hi setting, the actual overdrive character is very gritty and buzzy - there's a nasty separated distortion which seems to sit on top of the clean sound and which cuts off abruptly as the level decays, which is something I very often hear (and always hate) about digital distortion. The Modern sound was just terrible really, very harsh and grainy.

I did briefly try the Acoustic and Flat settings with an acoustic guitar too - it actually sounds much better on Flat, quite usable and natural. Acoustic was dull and muffled-sounding, no good at all. Didn't try Bass with a bass, although it sounded sort-of OK with a guitar, but rather too soft and a bit dull for what I would want it to sound like with a bass, I think.

So… hmmm. One great sound, one good one, four bad ones and a cartoony classic rock sound that I probably wouldn't use much - it's unfortunate that the distorted sounds are so poor when the clean is so good. I still much prefer my little Vox for overdriven sounds even though it's still a 'small' sounding amp, and is definitely not as well made as the Yamaha. Whether the Yamaha would be better if used as a clean platform for pedals, I didn't get around to trying. (Got distracted by his new Blade Strat .)

It hasn't put me off the THR100 though, they sound very different to me.

The THR10C would probably be more your cup of beverage @ICBM.

ICBM

simonk said:

The THR10C would probably be more your cup of beverage @ICBM.

I wondered that. It also looks much better .

I would have to hear it though - it was the character of the distortion I didn't like, rather than the amount of gain.

ThePrettyDamned

Strat54 said:

Sent my standard one back after three days, it was great for clean tones but beyond that I was most disappointed. Replaced it with a  used Pod 2.0 through an active set of stereo speakers. Bought the speakers and the Pod for half the cost of the THR new. The old 2.0 is great, no need to hook up to a laptop plus all the variables can be physically adjusted like an amp!

I'm considering this - what speakers did you get?