Have you seen the new Yamaha amps?

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:28 pm

Sonic State article and vid (Link) looks like a little 80s boombox.

[youtube][/youtube]

5W $199
http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-YAM-THR5-LIST

10W $299
http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-YAM-THR10-LIST

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:01 pm

You've got to lol at 'virtual tube illumination'. I like these a fair bit. Those Yamaha guitars are gorgeous too.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:14 pm

These sound really nice... I likes !!

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:01 pm

i like the sounds and the guitars, but jesus christ, why does every company think it's 1987 still (refering to a guy i a vest wanking all sortsa boring lead)?

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:18 pm

I love it a lot. For $199 it's a no brainer.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:24 pm

Not bad really. I wonder how fast that would eat up batteries???
If I needed another amp, I would probably consider one of these BUT:
1.) I hate when they put the controls and plugs on top. You can't stack it unless it's on top.
2.) I'm not a fan of effects in amps. It would be nice if they could have left them out and maybe dropped the price a little.

I'd make fun of the tool playing guitar but he's better than me. Ooops!

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:57 pm

Given it's a modeling amp from beginning to end, I doubt leaving effects off would drop the production costs by more than a dollar or two, so I'm glad they included it.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:13 am

I understand that but I just don't really like onboard effects personally. I would never use them and I realize that it probably wouldn't cost much less for them to leave them out. I don't know how much development and hardware cost for them to do the effects. The thing is I could buy a 5 or 10w tube head for just about the same. It did sound good though and it does have more options than most tube amps if not all.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:18 am

The whole amp is a giant effect, really. It's trying to imitate a typical guitar signal chain, it models preamp, power amp, speaker, everything, it's like Guitar Rig in a box. That's how they get such great sounds out of two 3"-4" speakers. If you don't want processed tone, you should stay far away from this amp. A 5w or 10w tube amp and this amp have very little in common. I haven't met a 5 watt tube amp you could actually play at 2 a.m. and get good tones out of.

I'm not trying to convince you that you like this amp, it's just that you seem to want something entirely different from what this amp is trying to do, and frankly, I think it's right when Yamaha says there is a huge hole in the amp market. As far as good amps go, there are the traditional gigging amps, then the small amps which are scaled down versions of traditional amps. The small amps do sound good but at what one might think they should be able to do, get good stage tone at low volume, they largely do not succeed. Instead, they just get great stage tone at a quieter stage volume. I think it's because they rely on traditional guitar speakers to provide that last bit of tone, and most speakers need to be pushed a bit to sound good. Even my beloved solid state Pathfinder doesn't really sizzle until I get that volume knob past 5. So while they're great for rehearsals and mic'd gigs, miniaturized amps can't really sit in your bedroom and get you that stage tone at bedroom volumes.

What Yamaha is trying to do is give you is a product engineered from the bottom up to deliver the tones of gigging amps in a desktop radio format, and at that, there's really no competition currently. The quality is much, much better than Micro Cube and other such competitors. After all, I have a Micro Cube, and it just doesn't sound 1/10 as good as these demos.

This would be a wonderful amp to have for all kinds of home practice, and especially for what my band calls quiet practices, when we're sitting around on couches, learning songs, working out arrangements, writing lyrics and melodies, practicing harmonies, sharing new songs, and we're usually playing at low volume late at night and no mic. These amps would be the ideal amps for that use. And then if we want to record, we just plug our little Yamaha amp straight into the computer and record exactly what we were hearing in the room. No $200 tube head can quite replicate this experience, and certainly not at that kind of portability.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:44 am

well the competition is playing a line 6 pod through monitors.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:55 am

Actually, I'm not in the market for a new amp at all and I totally understand the purpose of the amp. I was just saying if I was, the effects kind of turn me off of it. I understand that it's a modeler amp and it's not a tube amp. I was just saying I could get a tube amp of equal wattage for about the same and I also realize tube amps are better cranked and this would probably sound better at lower volumes.

Anyway, I really like the sound of it. Actually, I was very surprised with the sound of the demo. I wasn't trying to put it down or really compare the sound to a tube amp. I think it has a lot of cool features if that's what someone was looking for and it seems like it'd be great for bedroom use. I have a 100w Marshall 2203 in my bedroom!!!! I don't know what low volume is!!!!!

I think Line 6 has actually turned me off of this kind of stuff so maybe there is some subconscious bias going on in my head.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:56 am

Mages wrote:well the competition is playing a line 6 pod through monitors.

In that case, at $199, I figure a rather attractive looking and easy to use THR5 will beat the toyish looking (and oft-maligned if unjustifiably so) Pod easily, since the THR will feel more familiar to traditional amp users. Plus, it works as an iPod speaker!

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:12 am

your right about the looks, the pod looks stupid (the behringer one somehow manages to look worse). but you can get a pod for $80 or less used though. they're quite easy to find, durable, and they have plenty of decent clean tones which is all I really need out of a modeling amp. if you already have some kind of monitors, the speakers in the THR are unnecessary.

this looks kind of cool but for a cheap modeling option for home recording/playing/practicing this seems like a slightly gimmicky option over just getting a readily available pod. unless you really need some sort of mobile set up.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:59 am

Mustang I

Rayjaysonic · Post by **Rayjaysonic** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:32 pm

I use my Pod XT Live for low level practice and I picked that up for under Â£200 new, and it has the added advantage of working great with my amp when I get to let rip with the volume. I love the look of the Yamaha but I just don't get the market for it. It looks fantastic but I was very let down by the lack of a valve. If they at least put a 12ax7 in there, at least it would live up to the styling. If I was just starting out I would probably get something like a Roland cube and save some cash, and as I am now a lot older (but probably not that much wiser) I would want something with Valves.

treehousecollections · Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:32 pm

I took classical lessons in the late sixties and a music store in Midland had just started selling Yamaha stuff. My parents bought a Yamaha classical guitar for me. Yamaha had a speaker set up in the store, which was hooked to an off brand amp. The speaker was about three feet wide and five feet high. It was made out of Styrofoam. It was intended for Yamaha's electric keyboards of the time. I don't think they went very far, HA! You had to have a truck to carry them around. I just had to throw this in, as I could picture the big A$$ speaker hooked to this tiny little amp. If I remember correctly it took about 250 watts to power the dam thing, and it was replaced by the deal you hooked to a wall and used the whole wall as a speaker. I don't think it did too well either, I can't remember who made it. Then there was the Casino amps and speakers. I think they could be stacked to about 10,000 watts. It took several heads and twenty or so speaker cabinets. It think it was right after the Beatles played at Shea stadium. I am not sure if there was a fuzz box then, and most amps didn't have reverbs or tremolos. It was a dull world as far as effects went. I had a sears 250 watt solid state amp with electric reverb. It had four 12 inch speakers and was very loud, but very much lacking tonal quality. A bedroom amp was a 35 watt which hummed loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. It was just accepted that no one needed sleep if your kid played rock and roll. We don need no stinkin baby amp, give me fifteen 12's and 10,000 watts. I am a little deaf so speak up.

chemistforhire · Post by **chemistforhire** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:10 pm

cobascis wrote:Mustang I

I concur.

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:21 am

I want one!

[youtube][/youtube]

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:25 pm

Me too, I have some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and after watching countless videos online it seems perfect for home use and recording.
Albeit the vids have been the THR10, where I would get a THR5 due to price.

I do like Yamaha amps, I think they are quite underrated by many players.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:16 pm

If they had an output for an extension speaker i'd be sold.