Yamaha THR10

    Hi all,


    I recently asked about Fender Mustangs on here; basically, both of my daughters want to learn guitar and I'm a practice amp short. The Kemper is out for teaching purely because my little home studio is tiny and I can't fit 3 of us in there. I was thinking, rather than getting a bottom of the range thing, I'd perhaps get something that I could get some use out of too..... Nothing's going to replace the Kemper but if it's useful or fun for me too then that's a bonus ;)


    Being honest, I don't have the storage space for a 1x12 or bigger so size matters in this case. I tried the Mustang 1 v2 a couple of days ago and, whilst I liked the cleans, I really couldn't get anything dirt-wise out of it that I liked. This isn't me being 'down' on the amp because I realise this was almost certainly due to my lack of familiarity and my judging it in a music shop environment. I'd have happily bought it for the cleans as, to be honest, it would have done the job required but I thought I'd look around as it had mildly impressed me as opposed to blowing me away. Certainly great value for money though :)


    I decided against playing the Blackstar ID Core. I had an ID 2:60 briefly before I bought the Kemper and it suffered badly with hiss on the cleans. Hum I'm used to, hiss I'm not and that thing hissed like a snake. I got very little in the way of sense from tech support at Blackstar. I looked over on their forums and there were a few people reporting problems with noise gate choking issues and again getting a wall of silence from the manufacturer so I thought I'd give it a wide birth. Besides, I ideally wanted something with traditional amp controls, not the ISF thing.


    I read lots of great reviews on the Yamaha THR10 - it seemed difficult to find a bad review actually. I tried one today and it's come home with me as it blew me away in terms of size / performance! It's a lot more expensive than the basic Mustang so it's really not a fair comparison. It cannot be gigged which the larger Mustangs for sure could be but the Yamaha was still the winner for my particular situation. It wouldn't be for everyone but it came home because:-


    1. It's tiny and looks nothing like an amp. This should mean that I can get away with leaving it in the living room without getting one of 'those looks' :D
    2. It has traditional amp controls so I can get my girls used to what EQ does
    3. It has enough effects on there to keep them interested but not so many as to become a distraction
    4. The sound quality that comes out of this thing and the volume at which it does so is really impressive. Of course, the Kemper easily beats it does not disgrace itself. I'm not over-keen on the highest gain model but that's probably just me. The Plexi style amp and the clean Fender ish one are just lovely.
    5. The effects aren't bad at all. The hall reverb is really nice and it includes a Spring Reverb that, whilst not world beating, is perfectly serviceable. Just saying :whistling:
    6. It has presets but only 5 of them - it encourages you to use it like an amp. This is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your reason for buying it. For me in this case, it's a good thing.


    Bad things:


    1. The Noise Gate can only be adjusted within the software (why do so many of these devices do that???) And it needs a hint of noise gate at least IMO with the two highest gain models so as my Goldtop likes it.
    2. To set the tempo on the delay, you have tap tempo only as opposed to a rate knob. Bizarrely, if you tap it only does delay tempo and does not affect the tempo of the modulation effects which seems a little nuts to me.
    3. Price - you can get a whole lot of different practice amps considerably cheaper than this. You can get gig-able amps cheaper than this. But if you want something tiny that sounds like it isn't? Well then it's worth it.


    I've not yet fiddled with the software to discover what more it brings to the party.


    So if you need something tiny and fun that sounds surprisingly excellent for the size / price then it's got to be on your shortlist. If you need something as a backup gigging amp? Look elsewhere :)

    I have a THR10, and a THR5, which is a smaller version of the 10. Same tones, but a few less options. I love these amps! They are the perfect practice amp as far as I'm concerned. Small package, and surprisingly great tone.

    Thanks for the replies, guys.


    I've just had a go with it through headphones. I've got some Senheissers that are quite picky what drives them and it's OK but not super loud.... the speakers in it are better than the headphone output IMO. At least it's protecting my hearing too ;)


    I also had a quick go with the editor - it's a simple and cool design with presets down the left and then the ability to edit any of the parameters on the right. It made me realise again that I'd really like one for the Kemper. Dropdown boxes for selecting one of the many fx in Kemper is much friendlier than a lot of scrolling IMO.


    Speaking of the Kemper, I then had a go on it through headphones too. The THR is a great little box for the money for sure but the Kemper then showed me why I'd bought it. Sometimes you forget how good it is. I think the thing to do if I'm playing on the THR is not to use the Kemper first otherwise my ears won't be happy :thumbup:


    I love my Yamaha THR10C, but want somethin even better so am thinking of buying the Kemper. How do you find owning both? Do you ever use the Yamaha anymore?

    Hi Mosrite,


    As Ingolf says, they're completely different.


    I've had the Kemper for over 18 months and it's fabulous. I just got the Yamaha at the weekend purely because I'm giving guitar lessons to my children and needed an easy to use extra amp that could go in the living room and work with minimal fuss..... It's simple enough that the little ones can work the dials and learn how an amp works without the danger of blowing anyone's head off ;)


    My Kemper lives in my little home studio with correctly positioned studio monitors. From a sound quality point of view, it blows the Yamaha away. That's not saying the Yamaha is bad - it's actually great IMO but the Kemper is maybe 6 times more expensive and it's not surprising it's a better unit. If they sat side by side the Kemper would get used 10 times more but for my purposes I'm happy with the differing roles they have.


    In my case, both will get use. If the Yamaha sat in the studio next to the Kemper, it would get far less use. It's great at what it does and great in general until you put it next to the Kemper :)

    thanks for the answer. That's pretty much what I expected to hear, I believe the Kemper will blow the Yamaha away, whilst that doesn't mean the Yamaha is bad at all, it's just the price difference. I think Yamaha is more straightforward because it doesn't have any more features than some effects so I think even if I got the Kemper, I'd still use the Yamaha late at night instead of firing the Kemper up, turning on the speakers, etc.

    I tested the THR10x and I noticed it had quite a bit of fuzz.
    Offcourse I only spend a short time with it and don't have experience with it.
    Can it be dialed out?


    I'm doubting whether to go for the THR10 or THR10x.
    I play Jimi Hendrix, Slash, Randy Rhoads, Metallica kind of stuff so I'm not sure what would be best?
    I was very impressed with the clean on the THR10x though.