Yamaha THR5

120 Guitarist October 2011
YAMAHA THR5 & THR10 £199 & £299
GUITAR AMPS
Yamaha THR5 & THR10
£199 & £299
Does the new THR series provide the ‘perfect third amp’
for all your offstage needs? by Chris Vinnicombe
D
espite making more
musical instruments
than any other brand on
earth, Yamaha isn’t exactly the
first name you’d associate with
electric guitar amplification.
Although the solid-state GA-15
practice amp is still a fixture of
the catalogue, the DG series
modelling amplifiers have long
since been discontinued, and
you’d have to go back to the
valve-powered T50 and T100
designed by Mike Soldano in
the late 1980s to find a Yamaha
amp capable of getting pulses
racing. However, that could all
be set to change thanks to
Yamaha’s newest foray into the
world of guitar amps – the THR.
The THR theory is sound.
Most serious guitarists have a
big amp that does the business
at band levels, but is way too
loud for home use. Many will
also have a smaller combo for
rehearsals and intimate gigs.
But even a low-wattage valve
amp with built-in attenuation
can be too loud in a domestic
context, and will the other half
let you keep an ugly practice
amp in the lounge? Forget about
it. A THR? Well, it might just fill
the gap. And then some.
Unboxing the units, we’re
struck by the smart retro
cosmetics that bring to mind in
equal parts a lunchbox amp
head and a high-end DAB radio.
Both models have a pair of full-
range eight centimetre stereo
speakers onboard so, unlike a
mini valve head, you don’t need
an additional cabinet. Neither
THR model would look out of
place on a shelf or desktop and
they are certainly more discreet
than a 1 x 12 combo, or a home
audio system for that matter.
Only the textured plastic
section of the casing cheapens
the appearance a little – some
sort of wood veneer would be
a classier alternative.
That said, these aren’t strictly
living room amps; eight AA
batteries allow you to hone your
skills or jam along with your
iPod in remote locations thanks
to the 1/8-inch aux input. It’s
perfect for an impromptu Gobi
Desert blues jam session, or
more realistically, for blasting
out the soundtrack to a summer
camping trip.
You might assume that the
chief difference between the
THR5 and THR10 is one of
The Rivals
The idea of a living room-
friendly practice amp that’s
also great for hi-fi audio
reproduction, home
recording and much more is
the THR range’s unique
selling point, but products
such as the Fender G-DEC 3
(£329) and Line 6 Spider
Jam (£351) offer serious
competition and some of you
may prefer a more traditional
combo configuration.
output wattage, but in fact both
units are rated at 10-watts (five
either side) and house identical
speakers – the model names
don’t denote output power. The
larger THR10 benefits from the
versatility of three additional
core sounds (bass, acoustic and
flat), five memory locations for
storing sounds, a three-band
EQ as opposed to a tone pot and
separate output controls for
guitar and USB/aux.
Under the hood, both THR
units use Yamaha’s new Virtual
Circuit Modelling (VCM)
technology for core sound
generation, with the control
response designed to mimic the
‘real thing’ – valve amps. In this
instance, the five amp models
offer a range of Fender, Vox,
Marshall and Boogie-style
benchmark sounds that should
be familiar to anyone who has
PHOTOGR A PHY BY J OBY SESSIO NS
YAMAHA THR5 & THR10
£199 & £299
GUITAR AMPS
The powder-coated aluminium cases are pure retro chic
GIT347.rev_yamaha.indd 120 9/12/11 1:17:08 PM