Some questions about the Yamaha THR amps

[jamdogg]

 

I had a micro cube for a while. good for the money but not in the same league as the THR.

 

 

I still have one and play it daily. But Im thinking about upgrading to a THR10 and trying to convert the cube to a pedal. I just love the blackface model on that amp.

[elsupermanny14]

 

THR or pod eleven rack axe fx2 into studio monitors is the only thing that will work

 

 

Have been looking at the POD HD300 over the last 24 hours. Seems very interesting... I just don't like the idea of having all my amp controls on the floor when I'm trying to just jam. It's makes changing settings annoying as opposed to being "chair" height.

 

I think I'll go to guitar center and check them both out this weekend. I used to have a Line 6 Flextone II and a PocketPOD and Line6 has never let me down before.

[Jkater]

 

Have been looking at the POD HD300 over the last 24 hours. Seems very interesting... I just don't like the idea of having all my amp controls on the floor when I'm trying to just jam. It's makes changing settings annoying as opposed to being "chair" height. I think I'll go to guitar center and check them both out this weekend. I used to have a Line 6 Flextone II and a PocketPOD and Line6 has never let me down before.

 

 

I have the HD400 and I'm not finding that it delivers the huge promises it made when they were promoting it as the holy grail of modeling. It isn't bad and you might like it. There's the "bean" version if you want a Line6 HD at comfortable tweaking height.

[cratz2]

Thinking about buying one today, if they have a THR5 in stock locally.

 

I'd just buy one, take it home, tell your neighbor you bought an amp specifically for late night playing and that you'd like to do a test where you play and see if he can hear it.

 

I definitely agree with the suggestions of getting the amp off the floor, away from walls and put it on either a piece of foam or blanket/towel to separate it from whatever you DO put it on.

 

As for the other options... I loved the HD500 I had though I returned it after a month. Well, after a month and a half... I had the 400 and swapped to the 500 then returned the 500. Loved the high gain tones and I really think they made great strides with the HD series in regards to the edge of breakup tones and the 18W Marshall/AC15/Tweed Deluxe not too cranked tones but it still sounded much better to my ears when run through the FX Return of a tube amp with a good speaker.

 

 

I'd get the THR.

[mistersully]

 

I'd just buy one, take it home, tell your neighbor you bought an amp specifically for late night playing and that you'd like to do a test where you play and see if he can hear it.

 

 

i've done this sort of thing before... i'm sure the neighbor would appreciate it

[ashtray]

Buy an overdrive pedal and learn how to use the amp's volume knob. You can play near silently with almost any amp.

 

You crank a 1 watt amp through a 12" speaker, and yes, it will be "loud". (my lil smokey 1/2 watt 9V battery amp isn't very loud through the 2" speaker, but plug it into a 4x12 and it will shake the walls.) (Hehehe, I said "but plug"...)

[jamdogg]

huh......huhhuh....

 

[elsupermanny14]

Buy an overdrive pedal and learn how to use the amp's volume knob. You can play near silently with almost any amp. You crank a 1 watt amp through a 12" speaker, and yes, it will be "loud". (my lil smokey 1/2 watt 9V battery amp isn't very loud through the 2" speaker, but plug it into a 4x12 and it will shake the walls.) (Hehehe, I said "but plug"...)

 

Well that sort of defeats the purpose of tube saturation... I already have the attenuator and like I said, the attenuator keeps the amp at good volume for day practicing and weekend jamming. I'm just looking for something to play at night when I'm sure the neighbor is trying to sleep.

 

The more I look into this, the more I am coming to realize that amp makers still do not cater towards late night playing. Other than the THR there is not really anything else out there. The Line 6 stuff is on the floor which makes it a pain to keep bending over to tweak a setting and the Line6 HD bean device is like $400 plus foot controller!!!! I'm not paying that much just to practice at night. My original goal was to find something cheap that sounded good and connect my Boss ME50 for effects and jamming. That is why I thought of the THR5 right of the back.

 

I'll probably head to guitar center later today or tomorrow to go play the THR and scope it out. I recently came across the older Vox ToneLab desktop from a few years ago. That looks like it might work too.

[axegrinder]

It sounds like the OP should just try out the THR on a risk-free 30 day return at GC. Based on what people are saying playing that little speaker on your desktop may make all the difference in the world compared to the 12" cab on the floor.

 

*edit* ooops I didn't catch that last post.

[Jkater]

At $200, the TRH5 is what I guess would work for your purpose. I had both the 5 and 10 and the 5 sounds just as good. You'll love the small size!

[elsupermanny14]

 

At $200, the TRH5 is what I guess would work for your purpose. I had both the 5 and 10 and the 5 sounds just as good. You'll love the small size!

 

 

Didn't have a chance to head over to guitar center today but should be there tomorrow. Thanks for all the input guys! After being realistic, looking at the various options, and realizing I don't want to spend too much just for jamming at night I narrowed everything down to two options.

 

1. THR5 and I think $200 is the absolute most I'm willing to spend in order to "noodle" around at night.

2. Vox ToneLab Desktop from a few years ago.

 

Thanks for all the input guys!

[Danhedonia]

Not getting into the THR discussion, but get the cab off the floor - it can't but help. And try to arrange some sort of damping between the frame of the cab and the floor.

 

Example: if you put it on top of a plastic milk crate, maybe have some old T-shirts between the milk crate and the floor. This will provide a huge boost to neighbor relations, which will be appreciated regardless of the hour.

[yamahamian]

Hi, interesting thread, but the whole premise of the THR is to get great tube-like sounds at low volumes, so yes, you can get a good, fat tone at a very low volume. Every apartment is going to be different, so the only way to know is to try it out one night and as long as the neighbor doesn't bang on the ceiling (this happens to me a lot, on e-drums and unplugged acoustic guitar), talk to him the next day and see what he thought. Some people hate the low-volume, not feeling it in your gut deal, but if you detest headphones, the THR is the way to go -- just park your ears close to the speakers. The THR10 has more than just three tone knobs over the 5 -- it has five presets you can easily call up and it has an amp setting knob with an acoustic, flat and bass settings. And it is not a boombox made in China, that's ridiculous. All Yamaha gear, no matter where it's made, is QC'd thoroughly. Yamaha does not OEM ANY product (except for high-end drums, made by hand in a well-regarded factory in Japan). It's the company of origin, not the country of origin. This chart shows the differences: http://4wrd.it/THRCOMPARISON

[revans513]

I have the THR10 and I can go into my bedroom/studio/music room whatever you want to call it, and play at an acceptable level with good tone and not wake everyone up. Someone asked how loud it gets, I think if you ask, you missed the point, but it gets about as loud as my televison. I either have or had so many small amps and usb hookups and things and this is just totally different (in a good way). IMHO, until I got this the vox da5 was to my ears the best. But honestly, the THR does so much more and so much better. I've had mine for 3 or 4 months now and I still can't get over the sounds. Not only the different number of sounds but the quality of the sounds.....the only negative thing I can say about it is the volume drop on the clean setting. You can use the editor to fix that, but it takes up one of the pre-sets to do that.

 

The little thing is like a mix of really good pedals on a Bose system. You can argue the virtues of Bose all you want, but in the small package they did a great job in design etc. just as Yamaha did with the THR series. You have to play it (for a while) to truely get it.

[cratz2]

Well I bought a THR5. Not sure what I think so far... I've only played an H/S/S strat through it. The speakers aren't broken in and I haven't plugged it into the computer yet.

 

I must say so far, I'm not quite blown away. The Fender tone is pretty decent but I'm not feeling the reverb yet. The Crunch (which I assume is a Vox type tone) is not impressive at all. Again, I've only played one guitar through it, but... this might be the deal-breaker. The Marshall tones are pretty cool though I haven't played them much. The Boogie tone is pretty cool for gainy lead stuff, but I'm not feeling it at all for rhythm.

 

I absolutely LOVE how tiny it is. Definitely will spend more time with it, will run some music through it while the house is empty to speed up the speaker break in process and will tweak it with the computer software but if I had to decide this very instant, I'd take it back.

 

[revans513]

Well I bought a THR5. Not sure what I think so far... I've only played an H/S/S strat through it. The speakers aren't broken in and I haven't plugged it into the computer yet. I must say so far, I'm not quite blown away. The Fender tone is pretty decent but I'm not feeling the reverb yet. The Crunch (which I assume is a Vox type tone) is not impressive at all. Again, I've only played one guitar through it, but... this might be the deal-breaker. The Marshall tones are pretty cool though I haven't played them much. The Boogie tone is pretty cool for gainy lead stuff, but I'm not feeling it at all for rhythm. I absolutely LOVE how tiny it is. Definitely will spend more time with it, will run some music through it while the house is empty to speed up the speaker break in process and will tweak it with the computer software but if I had to decide this very instant, I'd take it back.

 

Hook it up and use the editor...I get way better control dialing things in with that than with the unit itself. It takes a little time to find the sweet spots IMHO but you'll get there.

[cratz2]

Oh... I'll tweak it exhaustively.

 

Downloading the Steinberg driver right now.

[jamdogg]

if the fender tone is only "pretty decent" I wont be acquiring the THR any time soon.

[IbanezJon]

One of the best things I love about the THR's is the "virtual circuitry modelling" or whatever it's called.. where the bass/middle/treble acts the same way on the THR as it does on the real amps. Same with the interaction between gain and master volume. You sacrifice a lot of that with the THR5.. to me, in terms of guitar tone, EQ is everything.

[cratz2]

I spent a bit of time with the editor. The tone control on the THR5 is very interactive. It's definitely not just a sweeping 'tone' control... it's more like a... a... range of preset EQ settings. At 10:00, the mids are scooped and the bass is up a bit and the treble is up a bit more. At 11:00, the mids are less scooped and there is more treble. It's actually pretty unbelievable how versatile that tone knob is.

 

jamdogg... definitely don't take my word for ANYTHING. Buy one and play with it for a couple weeks and return it if it doesn't work for you. The Fender model doesn't sound as good as the Clean 2 setting on my Vox DA5 though my DA5 has an 8" Weber speaker in it. It started getting late so I plugged in the headphones. Overall the THR sounds much better through phones than the DA5. The DA5 doesn't have... something going on. The Korg Pandora (which has mostly the same guts as the DA5) sounds like your guitar is coming through a CD that's being played back. The THR has that as well. The DA5 is completely devoid of that. I think that's more important for gain tones than clean and low gain tones, but it's worth mentioning.

 

I was able to dial in a Vox tone or two I could live with. Again, that Tone knob means everything. I'm a strat guy and often play in the bridge+middle position for Vox tones. Definitely not a deal breaker at this point though I could live with a little more dirt and I don't say that very often. It only gets to the point of an AC15 not quite half cranked. I'd imagine a lot of Vox fans wouldn't be happy with that.

 

I'm not crazy about the reverb. Not crazy about it on the DA5 either but to me, the spring sounds like I want more on the THR. I no longer have a Mustang, but my recollection is that I really liked the reverbs on it.

 

I ran loud music into it while we were at dinner and I'll do so for 7 or 8 hours tomorrow. To be honest, I think it's a neat little amp but... probably not for me.

[Jkater]

I've been testing and further AB'ing the THR10 and mustang III. they are now both beside my computer within USB range. So far, I find that the THR has fewer but slightly better sounds and I'm just more happy with the way it records. For some reasons that I can't figure out, the Mustang doesn't work well at all to record via USB. And the Fender universal driver was screwing up my video editing software, Pinnacle (it was stuck on that Asio driver and I didn't know how to change that so I uninstalled the Fender driver. The Fuse editor still works to change parameters onthe MIII.) Surely, my computer has mangoes of its own but then why is the THR working without any glitches at all? The separate USB and guitar volume on the THR box itself is very handy when I just want to balance the monitoring volume between BT and guitar while recording. I compare those two amps and yet, they are different things that have a different purpose but the similarities in regards to recording via USB and the similar price warrant this AB'ing. I can only say that the THR is the clear winner based on the mere fact that it works really well and sits right on the desk.

[mdintx]

I would second Jkater's opinion when it comes to recording. I've had a hard time getting ASIO cooperation on my laptop for direct recording.

 

I've only played with the THR at Guitar Center. I thought it sounded good. I had a hard time getting any overdrive/distortion in the Crunch mode. So for me, it seemed like it went from clean to dirty with little in between. It could have a bum unit or user error. For now, I'm content with the tones I've set up on the Mustang 1. If I had another amp (one that was bigger or didn't have any modeling) or didn't have a Toneport unit, I'd be taking a much harder look at the THR 10.

[cratz2]

Spent even more time with it and learned some useful things... for one, I was relatively unhappy with the general tone when going for a 'someone's in the room next door, but they don't mind hearing the guitar' volumes... but when going for 'the kids asleep on the couch right next to me so I really need to keep it down' volumes, it's pretty sweet. Unfortunately, I don't need to play that quietly. I took the amp back today and will just stick with my modded DA5 for those needs.

 

Guy at Guitar Center said they've been selling like mad. Said a lot of folks are raving about them and a number of folks have bought the THR5 and came back and upgraded to the THR10.