Yamaha THR10 Amp Review
Since I left the bands I was in I no longer need amps/heads etc but I do still like to play through an amp, so this is my solution.
Good:
It's well put together- powdered aluminium & nice knobs. There's no fabric to tear, despite my 4year old there's not a mark on it (crayon wipes right off).
Wide range of modifiable sounds- from chimey cleans to heavily distorted gain this wee box can do it all. You've got delays, reverb etc to play with too. (There is an in depth editing suite for your computer, but I just play it as is & save good sounds to the presets).
The tuner works well too.
Compact & Good looking- MrsLostSon actually LIKES the way it looks. It sits out next to my guitar & is always ready to go.
Aux in- I have an iPod dock connected to it & we use it as the stereo in that room. You can blend the guitar and aux levels for practice along to a track.
Sound- for such a small box the sound is VERY impressive & the stereo sound is quite "wide" it really fills a room.
Bad- sound. I know I put sound in the good section too! Positioning of the amp is VERY important. It's designed to be kept at table/desk/shelf height & the sound becomes a bit mushy & bassy if you get "above" the speakers. Until I read a thread about this I didn't like the amp that much, but now it's sorted I think the sound is very good.
On the rare occasion I use it on the floor I tip the amp to aim the speaker at me.
It IS only 10watts, so you won't be using it to play any venue bigger than your living room: but that's part of the design & not really a flaw.
Overall I think it's a very well designed & constructed amp. Perfect for its intended use as an always ready practice tool.
I've recommended it to several friends & they all seem happy with it too.
Would I buy another one? Absolutely. Although it might be the THR10c instead as I rarely play metal.
Comments
Here's Soren Andersen putting a THR through its paces:
You can play at deafening levels with headphones if that's your thing, or right down to unplugged and it still sounds great.
I use it to play along with tracks from the laptop, but the sound now drops out regularly. I get messages saying that the Steinberg drivers do not support USB 3.0. The Yamaha web page says i have the latest Windows 10 compatable drivers. Frustrating!!
As a stand alone practice amp i find it to be a great piece of kit and because of the volume i don't get a lot af grief from my Nagger
They're great little grab and go amps.
It's one of the better modelling amps out there - the only one that's impressed me in terms of sound quality really, although a couple of the models are difficult to use I find. The build quality is pretty good but the board mounted socket for the PSU is a weak point and mine broke after a child related incident. Luckily I managed to MacGyver a repair as I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, but I still treat it with kid gloves.
The editor is very good and makes the amp much more versatile (if you need it) than it is just by tweaking the knobs. There are also several websites on which other THR users have uploaded their sound files for you to download, which is very quick and very easy to do.
The THR app is also worth a mention. Download it on your smartphone and you can use it to play a song in your library, loop a particular section and even slow down the recording at original pitch so you can figure out those tricky guitar parts.
Personally I find the sound a bit tinny. Don't get me wrong, for a practice amp it sounds very good but the sound is a bit 'over there' and not very well defined if that makes any sense. It's also quite loud for something that looks like, and is smaller than, a toaster. However, I find the louder it gets the more susceptible it is to acoustic vibration and the worse it actually sounds - I find my ears get fatigued very quickly, especially on the higher gain models, the louder the amp is turned up.
Speaking of, I don't know what the BRIT HI model is meant to emulate but it's shite, I can't get a good tone out of it. Also, the higher gain models including both the modern and BRIT HI models are difficult to EQ through the built in speakers.
The effects I find quite poor. The timed effects I don't get on well with unless I'm also using the THR editor which give much more control over the delays etc. The chorus is just awful, acceptable if you need it but overwhelming and clinical unless you play in a living-room Marillion tribute act, and I feel similar about the other effects too. I find them pretty binary to be honest but like I say the THR editor gives much better control if you happen to have it handy, but then to me that just defeats its purpose of being immediate and practical - I don't want to be playing with parameters on a computer, I want to be playing my guitar!
Where it comes into it's own, however, is as a guitar recording interface. If you want a way to get good guitar sounds onto hard disk in your DAW then the THR is stellar. OK, it won't allow you to muck about with the guitar sounds post recording as with a software plugin but it's a very immediate way to get a good tone down quickly.
But for something to use in your home, is very portable and battery powered if you need it to be (songwriting session at the singers house - grab guitar and THR and you're done!), sounds reasonable and doubles as a DAW interface then the THR can't really be beat.
There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife
Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky
Bit of trading feedback here.
Having said that, it is pretty ideal for what I want to use it for, occasional jamming along to backing tracks etc. It is small and easy to stash into my locker. I can live with the sounds.
Only negative so far - stupid fragile little on/off toggle switch ........ mine broke in transit about 2 weeks after getting it
Well, the blue light was my baby, and the red light was my mind.”
Robert Johnson
I then found out the price...
@Haych, I did read that changing the cab setting (I think this can only be done using the software) to American 4x12 improves the sound vastly, so I tried that and it did - so much that Brit Hi is my go-to model now
I think these are the best bedroom amps. I'm looking and waiting to find competitors and an update from Yamaha. I wish they had more of these or could get all the 3 different amp sounds in 1.
I do wish they were a bit more flexible. After 6 years playing these amps I also wish the speakers were bigger for a fuller sound. But for playing in the bedroom at TV volumes it is the best. My tube amps are a Fender Vibroverb and a 5e3 Deluxe, and although they sound better, this Yamaha gets all the playing time since it's so convenient. I've been impressed since 2012!