The Best Guitar Amplifiers of the YAMAHA brand

You’ve probably read tons of great reviews about the THR5, and indeed I agree with all of them in terms of sound quality, clarity, versatility, design, and so on. However, I want to add here a point of view about something not a lot of people share: recording via USB. As you know, you can connect your THR5 to a computer and use it as an audio interface for recording. If you’re looking for a really minimal setup for your home studio (like I was), I’m sad to share that the THR5 doesn’t do a good job in this area.

If you want to record one of the processed sounds of the amp ("clean", "crunch", "lead", etc, which are send through input signals 1 and 2), you might be happy with the outcome. However, if you want to use a digital amp sim like the ones from your DAW or NeuralDSP plugins, for example, you may prefer to use the DI inputs (3 and 4). Despite THR5’s Impressive low latency, here are the main problems:

The output signal for DI is very low, and there’s nothing you can do to control the gain for DI. All the settings for master, volume, and gain control affect only the processed sounds, not the DI. In my case, my guitar signal was peaking at -34db when recording, which is pretty low, creating a bad signal to noise ratio. When compared to Focusrite Scarlett Solo, for example, the difference in quality is gigantic, so I recommend you to use a proper audio interface for better sound recording instead of the THR5.

All in all, I really like this Amp for daily practice. I just had the wrong expectations in mind for recording when I bought it.

Only one word: great!

I use this amp for home practice and recording of demos.
This is a good amp under every aspect. Plenty of words of appreciation have been written over the years and I agree with every single one of them.
Sounds great and the modeled amps and effects provide all the basic options you need for practice and simple recordings.
The drivers’ installation on PC is straightforward and no issues whatsoever have emerged while recording with Cubase (included with the amp) and other popular software.
The building quality is flawless and the amp is so compact and light that you can play literally wherever you want.
Only feature I miss: bass/mid/treble knobs available right on the amp (but you have to consider the size); anyway they can be set using the PC application (which offers extended settings and options).

Use: for practice with my electro acoustic guitars, and my Yamaha Silent Guitar (361839). With the SLG I would use the pre-amp in the THR5A output to headphones for truly silent playing (at night, for instance, at home).

What is it? I find many reviews less than clear on this. Yamaha THR devices actually ‘model’ sound, and also have a small amplification (the THR10’s are 5W+5W and, importantly, that’s the same for the THR5’s). I own 3 THR’s (2 10’s for general and electric guitar, and now the newest THR5A – which I should have bought a long time ago). The THR5A is SPECIFICALLY for acoustic guitars, modelling types of microphones for variety I suppose, but also to enable simulation of a live environment where the sound engineer, for instance, might want to use a dynamic mic, but where you tend to prefer the balance and depth of a large condenser. Well, you can model all of that and put your views intelligently to the engineer, who may help.

[Notes for the Silent Guitar: turn off the mic emulation (use PU only), and turn off the effects (reverb and chorus) and let the THR process the guitar’s output ‘dry’ with its own magic.]

Pros. Lots of pros for this thing. Firstly, it’s small despite it’s identical power to its bigger THR10 brothers. And it’s a lovely sort of gold colour – really nice, with that glowing grill when it’s on. But the quality of the sound (pre-amp stage) is wonderfully rich and thought through. Better I think than the THR10 range, which seem less controlled (but, let’s face it, they’re geared towards electric guitarist winding up the effects). The compressor (which I don’t use much just on my own playing) is actually controlled on the device rather than only available by computer link, and lets you blend into an instrument mix better during recording. Look it up.

Cons. I don’t want to say anything bad, but there’ll be somebody that will point out that if you pump up the amplifier volume the bass corrupts. Look – this is a small amp, with 2 smallish speakers, so there are limits. Pass through it to a larger amp (through the phones jack or USB) if you need volume. A good trick is to not drive the THR too hard from your instrument – let the volume control on the THR give the punch. On a silent guitar that means lowering its own output volume to about 1/3rd ideally, then turning up the THR volume to compensate.

Conclusion: this is a fantastic help for acoustic players which looks groovy, fits in a tiny bag (camera case, for instance), and makes cleverly engineered sounds. My silent guitar is nylon (I use a mix of guitars) and the ‘nylon’ setting (not sure what mic that’s emulating) allows all the subtlety of nylon to come out, and that’s why finger style players like me have nylon-strung modern guitars – expression. But my steel-strung guitars get 5 star treatment from the mic types. Condenser always my favourite on my Takamines, as they’s already put ‘tube’ into the equation through CoolTube technology in their own pre-amps.

Carefully and quickly brought to me in the UK from Thomann, as always. Make your guitar happy – it’s infectious!

Amp sounds great, period. If you have a dull sounding rehearsal room, living room or bedroom, this will save your electro-acoustic day. Great mic models, great reverbs, very acceptable chorus and compressor effects.
As a recording tool this works great as a first step, laying down acoustic tracks. Be careful with latency though.
Two drawbacks:
– USB computer volume (while recording) can only be set via the PC interface software.
– there are no presets. When you use this amp with multiple guitars, you might want those…
I have a THR10C too, which does have presets and a USB volume control.

It is a good amp, however it has a few negatives. I play mainly rock, r’n’b, blues, funk etc. so I mostly focus on the clean and crunch sounds.
Let’s start with the positive things. The amp is really light and it looks really good. So you can keep it in your living room on the bookshelf of wherever. Since it also works as a bluetooth speaker, you can use it as a speaker for the room. The sound of a bluetooth speaker when playing music is ok and it is loud enough. The amp has many features, mobile app, USB recording and all that. So, packed with features.
Sound of the amp is ok. To be honest, I expected more after reading and watching the reviews on the internet. Maybe small, BT amps with small speakers are just not for me. To my ears, Boss Katana 50 sounded much better. As did the Fender Tone Master Deluxe, but that one is much more expensive. But again, sound is not bad, it was just not as good as I expected. A little bit too artificial.
The other problem with the sound is that volume levels really differ between channels. Clean is really quiet, Crunch is louder, and the others are much louder. I expect that for same master volume/gain/volume settings to be the similar loudness. But that’s not the case. Again, this is not a big problem, since you won’t be switching amps all the time.
The mobile app could use some UX improvements. Not everything is logical or user friendly, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
My biggest problem with the amp was that mine was defective. It has a loud high frequency squeaking sound, especially audible on single coil guitars. On humbuckers you can still hear it but barely. I read that it happens on some of the yamaha amps, but not too often. So I was probably unlucky.
Fortunately, I bought it at Thomman, so I didn’t have any problems returning it.

It’ll take some time to get the sound you want, but what helped me find the tones I wanted was by searching for Yamaha THR10II tones that people have shared on YouTube and Facebook. Beautiful amplifier.

This amp is absolutely amazing, the sound easily fills a big room! The guitar sound as well as the sound when just playing music is of great quality.

It is very important to know though that Yamaha offers an app to model the amp effects in great detail via bluetooth. The app for Ios, Android, Mac work great. The app for Windows though DOES NOT have the bluetooth option, hence you can only model the amp via cable with a windows PC!

This is not a windows, of bluetooth connectivity issue, it is in fact an issue in the Yamaha Windows app. Lets hope Yamaha quickly fixes this issue because it is of course sold as a Wireless product. On the internet i read that this problem already exists for several months..

As said, apart from this issue this is just an absolutely amazing product!! The app is also very user friendy, just a shame that the windows version doesnt support bleutooth,,,

The sounds are very good and plenitiful. It’s a neat little thing. Very useful and helps me play more, which was the point. Only drawbacks are I’m not a big fan of the way the effect knobs work. And sometimes the wireless system doesn’t connect with the Line 6 dongle. Sometimes it does. Mostly it does. But it’s not something that can be relied on every time. I don’t change anything and everything is updated so I have no idea why. Still works fine with a cable on those occasions.

So, having seen all the available reviews here and on youtube, I bought the thr10 wireless and after a week of playing it I must say it is a fantastic piece of technology! I play rock, metal, occasionally blues and cleans, and I am nowhere near reaching any decent level in playing, but I must say it amazes me. I’ve had most of the modeling amps including the green thr10x, which I sold due to lack of body and natural feel in some ways. This is hands down the best and all I need for home playing, awesome cleans, great rock sounds and crushing metal distortion. The battery and wireless option together with the g10 transmitter I added to it make me look no further in amp search.. I do not usually write reviews and unfortunately feel shy to make a video one due to humble palaying skills, but could’t help this time, hoping it will help smb make their decision.. Some people mention the cumbersome app and lack of bottom end/volume, I can only say, the app works great on my laptop, it is much less complicated and time cosuming than that of a Katana for example, the different cabinet options available can make the amp sound the way you want..from heart breaking cleans to brutal death metal or doom riffs I play. Unlike the 1st generation thr, this one definitely has more and better sound, more wattage and I suspect better quality speakers, I sometime connect it to my JBL speaker for even more sound and body, which is not really necessary provided you are a bedroom player like me and value feel and sound quality more than volume, also one can go for the 30w version if not satisfied.. I believe if connected to PA or similar sound system this small amp will amaze even more.. I did not intend to write much or sound like a Yamaha affiliate, but there you go, it is the best guitar purchased I have made. Yes, it is expensive, but from food to cars quality has price, and to my satisfaction and joy what I purchased meets and exceeds my expectations and justifies the price tag 🙂
of course, a big thanks to Thomann for exceptional customer service and trading standards.

This amp is truly amazing. I was looking for a small amp to play in my apartment at any hour I like, without disturbing the whole building, and something I can carry on me to play anywhere I want. And this is it. Even at a low sound level, this amp has a really dynamic sound. The effects are great, and the equalizer is WORKING great !
I mostly use the Clean and Crunch channel for my guitar, and the bass channel as well, and they all sound amazing. The clean channel has a purity I’ve been looking for, with a perfect tonal balance between bass / medium / high. It has a perfect response to the dynamic playing, as a tube amp would have.

The only thing I could be unhappy about is the need to download an app and spend some times on the computer to get in the deep settings of the amp. But, to be honest, I have my pedal effects, so it’s not really a problem to me.

All you have to do is : turn on the amp, and play, anywhere, anytime, nothing more simple, with a sound you gonna love.