Yamaha THR 5 / 10 Club

[simonc]

I just bought one of these beauties last night - one of the best purchases I've ever made for guitar related gear. Thought I'd start a club to discuss these great amps... I'll take pics of mine tonight.

I truly cant get over the harmonic feedback sustain, at conversation levels! it blew my mind.
And the Hall reverb is one of the best digital reverb's i've ever heard. I usually hate digital reverb ( though I like the digital spring reverb on the mustang III I own better than the spring in the THR5).

A great buy - I can practice late at night, in front of the tv, with sounds that normally I'd have to have a cranked amp to get. Love it. Best amp ever for late night jamming.

[JayFreddy]

I'm in! The first time I played through one of these I thought it was actually a tube amp. I try not to sound like too much of a Yamaha fan-boy, but what else can I say? They made me a fan!

[LesCanard]

Definitely count me in! I'm putting the SCXD on Craigslist today - no disrespect to that amp - it's great - the THR5 has made it obsolete for me. Some pics are here that I shared in the other thread.

[LesCanard]

Here is something else really cool I discovered as I play with this awesome amp that makes it such an amazing practice tool. As you know - you can hook your iPod/phone etc. into the aux and play along. A few months back - I went out and bought a Boss RC-3 Looper pedal - I love it, I have loaded tracks as well as play along with the looper, practice lead, etc. Now I simply take the looper pedal, hook a 1/4" to mini adapter and connect to the THR5 aux in - it works brilliantly. The best part - as opposed to when I run the looper through my Vox AC15VR - which if you've ever run loopers or backing tracks through a guitar amp they sound tinny because an amp is obviously voiced for guitars for the most part. When you run it through the THR5's aux - it's really true hi-fi - they sound 100% better and as I said - I can pretty much practice with my awesome looper anywhere I want. What a cool tool!!

[simonc]

Mmm L E D's :)

[xStonr]

I just got the THR10 the other day and it sure is an impressive little piece of equipment. I'm in the tweaking stage right now. What's amazing is the delay/reverb/hall functions. The sound that comes out of that little box is astounding.

[simonc]

Originally Posted by xStonr

I just got the THR10 the other day and it sure is an impressive little piece of equipment. I'm in the tweaking stage right now. What's amazing is the delay/reverb/hall functions. The sound that comes out of that little box is astounding.

the 1st time I tried out the hall reverb I literally did a double take and was wondering how all of a sudden I was getting great room reverb in my lounge, it totally fooled me.

[Kyle76]

The camera bag carrying case is genius!

[Boubou]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

The camera bag carrying case is genius!

No way, lunch bag is it. I keep my 35mm camera in an insulated, therefore padded , lunch bag. Who would break into your car to steal your lunch?

Sent from my iPad using TDPRI

[JayFreddy]

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly...

The Good. Yes, you can save presets on your computer using the THR Editor, even when using the THR5. There are 100 presets available, and 70 of them are left blank so you can save your own presets. Unlike many guitar oriented multi-effects units that come with a huge distraction of stupid presets, I think most of the factory presets you can access from inside the THR Editor are actually very nice.

The Bad. Once inside the THR Editor, 10 of the 30 factory presets are set aside for bass guitar sounds. Unfortunately, on the THR5, if you try to select one of those presets, it says "Invalid Model" and won't let you open it. I imagine these only work with the THR10. Unfortunately, with the THR5, you can NOT overwrite these 10 slots with guitar tones, so you are functionally left with only 90 slots for the THR5. Personally that's plenty for me, but I wish I could just delete the patches I will never be able to use.

The Ugly. I'm finding it impossible to get the accompanying Cubebase software to install. I've installed it, but it's not recognizing the license provided by Yamaha. I know this is not a typo issue, because the THR actually sends the license number to the computer via USB and populates the necessary field within the Steinberg authentication software. I suspect this is because I'm using a 64 bit system, as all of the 64 bit drivers look to have just been updated within the last few days...

To add insult to injury, when I tried to go to the Steinberg forum to search out a solution to the problem, Steinberg won't let me post on their forum or even send an email without a valid license number. In other words, the license number provided by Yamaha isn't valid, and Steinberg won't even talk to you without a valid license number.

I wasted about 3 hours last night trying to get the Steinberg/Cubase garbage to work... Right now I'm feeling very frustrated. If Yamaha and Steinberg can't get me up and running during business hours tomorrow, I may return the whole thing. The recording capability was a major selling point for me...

ps. That iPhone app looks really cool. Too bad I just re-upped a two year contract for new Android phones...

If an Android app was available, that might help remove some of the nasty taste caused by the Steinberg/Cubase 64 bit compatibility problem...

[Kyle76]

Can a patch actually be saved to the THR5 itself, so that when you choose a model, you get an edited version of that model even when not attached to your computer? Could you save a different amp model to, say, the Modern amp slot?

Regarding the iPhone app, it appears to be just a music trainer that doesn't really interface with the amp at all, in terms of affecting any amp settings. Am I wrong about that? What is needed is THR Editor on an app.

[simonc]

I've been using it with garageband with no problems at all...:)

[Hoodster]

Here's a Yamaha vid on the free App:

[Kyle76]

The USB connectivity should make it fairly easy to incorporate a few controls into a mobile app. That would be particularly nice for THR5 users, who can't save any presets. Either that, or allow customized THR Editor settings to save on the amp even after it is disconnected from a computer. There's no reason that couldn't be accomplished with a firmeware upgrade, is there?

[Kyle76]

I got my THR5 in the mail today at work. I had a THR10 briefly but sent it back. I was amazed at how small the 10 was, even though I had seen many pictures and videos of it. I thought I was prepared for the size of the 5, but holy cow, once again I was stunned when I opened the box. This thing is seriously compact! It really is about the size of a kid's lunchbox. I'm hoping the 5 comes pretty close to the sound of the 10, despite the smaller footprint. I just decided the 10 wasn't enough of an improvement over my Roland CUBE Street to justify another $300 battery-powered amp. In fact, overall, I like the Street better. I picked up the 5 with a $180 "make an offer" on eBay, and I already had a $100 Paypal credit, so my out of pocket is pretty minimal. I think I can do without the presets, as I usually just find a tone and leave it during a practice session. I'm looking forward to getting it home and playing it. It is truly small enough to place almost anywhere.

[Hoodster]

Interesting -- that's the first time I've heard of anyone preferring the Rolands over the THRs. I'll be curious to hear if your impression of the 5 is any different.

[Kyle76]

Strictly from a tone standpoint, and at the levels for which it was designed, the THR was probably better than the Roland. But, the Roland can go louder, has an XLR microphone input and a separate channel for the mic or an acoustic guitar. It doesn't suffer the cutting out problem of the THRs, which I don't think will be an issue for me, as it occurs at a higher level than I am likely to use.

[LesCanard]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

Can a patch actually be saved to the THR5 itself, so that when you choose a model, you get an edited version of that model even when not attached to your computer? Could you save a different amp model to, say, the Modern amp slot?

Can anyone confirm or deny this. I hooked my THR5 to my Mac and messed around with the Editor a bit - it has some nice settings available. But I wonder the same thing. Basically - can I swap out some of the Editor's patches into 1 of my 5 amp models - disconnect, then if I choose to go back to the defaults later, I can simply do that through the Editor?

[Kyle76]

I haven't tried it yet, but most everything I have read indicates that nothing is saved once you disconnect from your computer and turn the unit off -- everything goes back to the default settings. I guess you could leave the unit on for awhile if you were going to pick things back up fairly quickly or just wanted to move outside or something. I would think that this could be changed with a firmware update where settings would be saved until you started changing them with the knobs. I do not believe you can assign another amp to a model other than the amp on which it is based.

[LesCanard]

I agree - I think a firmware update could solve it, however maybe this is the differentiating factor for someone to pay the extra $100 for the THR10.