Yamaha THR30 II Wireless 30-watt Modeling Combo Amp - Black Reviews

I've played for 30+years and have been fortunate to have some nice amps but this little unit is amazing it is capable of a full variety of tones and sounds from great clean ambient tones to full bore metal and anywhere in between and the ability to be battery powered is awesome, it's a lil pricey but if your looking for a single unit that needs no help getting about any tone you need with a really good balanced sound and a surprising amount of volume this is it , it's not gonna be a gigging setup but to grab it up and be able to just rip and practice it does the job flawlessly

I was looking for an amp I could bluetooth music thru while playing guitar and this amp is perfect. Almost all the reviews talk about how great it sounds playing a guitar thru it and of course it's a Yamaha so it is going to sound great but music also sounds fantastic thru this. If you're looking for an amp to jam to music, is portable with built in re-chargeable battery, sounds great at low to medium volume, this is the amp.

Fantastic desktop amp. Loads of options and actually sounds good. The aesthetics are unobtrusive too.

He lead me to this nice practice amp instead of something that I didn't need. He really listened to me and my needs at the time , he's the best!!!

The original truly great practice Amp for professionals. THR stands for 3rd. This tool was designed to be your 3rd amp. Your first amp would be your 100 watt stack your second amp would be your 50 watt combo this bad boy is your third Amp. Used by professionals when they want to practice with a small portable Amp that sounds as good as an Amp can sound in this day and age for its size. There are other good small practice amps out there. I've purchased most of them but this little guy sounds better and more true to life than all others. Most "modeling" amps only model the sound of the Amp, Yamaha took it to another level and "Modeled" the circuitry of each Amp. If you've owned some vintage amps, especially combos you know that when you tweak the treble or base knobs, some react far different than others, Yamaha made those circuits react in the same fashion. That is not easy to do but they wanted to achieve perfection. If they would only add a looper function they would have. Maybe next revision. I'm not going to tell you about everything else it can do, like record both wet and dry signals at the same time to your desk recorder for future effects tweaks, but I can tell you that you won't be disappointed. These amps never go on sale either because they are just that good. I have all 3 if the first generation 10 watt models, each are unique but when they came out with this new model that has all 3 amps built in, and with built in wireless receiver and a lithium ion battery for true wireless play back! Sold! Great job Yamaha! Keep up the innovation, I can't wait to see, and hear, the generation.

This item is exceeded expectations. It's way more than I expected it's a lot. I have not even scratched the surface. You can get a lot of sounds out of this thing and even more using the phone app which I haven't even tried yet. It's stylus compact looks good anywhere on a table on the ground carrying handle convenient not too heavy I could go on and on if you need a little amp that's loud enough for your house and definitely your one room this is it. Technology these days... It's amazing. Further, I got a heck of a deal at Sweetwater.

Had to return first one--slightly fluctuating volumes on non-clean amp modes. Might not bother everyone but I couldn't get past it. Replacement process was easy--thank you to the Sweetwater team--stuff happens.

The replacement is everything I needed it to be. My demographic fits it: I need something with a FULL sound at low volume. Mid 60-s playing for 5 decades...downsized from homes (with great practice space setups) to an apartment.

For an apartment guitarist who plays a wide range of styles/music, this works for me. And so far, the digital amps/effects are sufficient to keep me from hooking up my pedal board(s). Ha.

First of all, I'm a big fan of the THR5. The sound quality, the size, the simplicity, the recording capabilities, and the fun all scored very highly with me. I loved it so much I decided I wanted to step it up to the THR30. And while I did think it was cool I ultimately reverted back to the THR5. Here's some of my observations, bearing in mind that my particular needs will most assuredly be somewhat different from yours. Just so you know, right out of the gate I don't like using amps that require a lot of app/PC tinkering to get the tones I want and while I knew what I was getting into with the Yamaha line I knew from experience that it was nothing like the Katana depth of editing monster. Unfortunately THR30 required a bit more "connecting" to tinker around than I was seeking. Here's some of my thoughts.

Out of the box it's much larger than the THR5. From the pics I didn't think it was going to be a big deal but really, wow, it's much larger and heavier. I preferred the size of the THR5 right away.

The sound. Well for sure it can get louder than the THR5, but that's not what I bought it for. I have other amps for that. I just wanted to enjoy a bit more low end and I guess some increased headroom. And while the THR30 does indeed have a bit more bottom end I ultimately did not feel it sounded $350 better than the THR5, at all.

The extra options on the unit itself, to be honest, didn't impact me as much I as had hoped. Right away I quickly realized that out of the three tone settings available I'd only be using the "Classic" mode, making the Modern and Boutique settings kinda useless for me (I just didn't like them). Also, believe it or not, I found the singular "Tone" knob of the THR5 simply easier to dial in sounds that made me happy. The three band just made me spend more time tinkering and ultimately wasting time second guessing myself, but that's just me.

The bass, line, and acoustic options were functional. Useful for recording. I do wish the THR5 had at least the bass option.

The separate guitar and audio level controls are useful but ultimately I didn't have a problem using the volume control on my phone to adjust the mix on my THR5.

I preferred the 1/4 headphone jack on the THR5.

I much preferred the power switch on the THR30 over the one on the THR5.

The THR5 came with both the USB cable and Aux cable included, along with the power adapter. THR30 only came with the power adapter.

The effect control. I was surprised at how little they actually did when I turned the knob. While you can certainly use the app or connect to the PC to control the effects and save your own presets precisely like want, the effect control range using the knobs on the unit itself, for tinkering on the fly, were practically useless to me. As you turn the knob not much changes. The rate in particular didn't move much at all. On the THR5, out of the box, moving the effects knob for each one directly affected the rate and effect sound and was very useful for experimenting and finding tones. I believe Yamaha should release a firmware update correcting this or, much like the level of editing control the Boss Katana platform gives you, allow within the app or on the PC the ability to assign the function of the effects knob on the unit. In other words, it should allow you to control the rate more directly, or the depth, or volume, that kind of thing. As it stands now when you use the knobs to control the effects on the unit you don't get much variation at all without using the app or PC and saving your presets.

A tone control option that ultimately wound up being major to me is only available from within the app or PC itself, the "Focused" vs. "Open" speaker sim option. This greatly effects the overall tone of the amp and it's a shame it wasn't incorporated earlier with a dedicated switch on top because it's a big deal. From my experience, the Open speaker sounded great for the cleaner tones while the Focused was great for the distorted tones. For sure, if you don't mind using the app all the time to switch back and forth it's no big deal but like I mentioned earlier in this review, I don't like always needing an app or PC connection to play around on an amp. The app itself seemed a bit sketchy at times and I wasn't always successful getting it to snap on when I needed it when I did use it.

The internal battery. While it is quite convenient I also tend to look into the future with these kinds of things and know the battery will eventually go bad and require removal and replacement. How long will it last? Who knows. I know I prefer using AA batteries in the THR5 even if it does cost a bit to use it that way.

So there it is, a bit of my personal experience comparing the THR5 and THR30 and what eventually fit my needs better. Sweetwater was fabulous throughout the entire process. I returned the THR30 and got myself another THR5. I am happier. Nothing wrong with the THR30 at all, it's a fantastic amp and for some it's got everything they will need. App/PC types will have no issues adjusting things on the fly. For me, I realized I didn't need all that extra stuff and was perfectly fine with the smaller, more basic one that really sounds fantastic itself. YMMV

The Original THR 10 came in three flavors" Swiss Army Knife, High Gain/Metal and Classic. The original black THR10 C was a low gain model that focused on classic sounds for blues, country, rockabilly and other non high gain sounds. It was a specialized amp with 5 settings that were all useful in those genres. Frankly, it sounded amazing and took pedals well too. The amp did have a few drawbacks - the the joystick ac switch. the gold lettering on back, and it required 6 AA batteries to work without an AC adaptor. But the sound was (and is amazing).

The new model makes it difficult to replicate the Classic array of amps. The black color is just a style thing and not indicative of any difference from its cream colored brothers. The switch is fixed, the battery is internal and the headphone jack is 1/8 - all welcome improvements.

Also, it is surprising that the effects are all the same is the decade old model. You would think that with LINE 6 as part of the Yamaha family, they would have upgraded with some more state of the art effects. I ended up returning this and I'll keep playing out of my 10-year old THR 10C.

I got this with high expectations. I was wanting to use the bluetooth to play music through it, and play along with my guitar, but that was impossible. The music I streamed off of youtube or Spotify was barely heard. And the guitar sound was not heard at all. And the big problem I had was the tone of the amp itself. It was very generic, and the sound kept on wavering high and low. Just was not a good experience for me. Nevertheless, Sweetwater has always been a great place to guy gear, and I will always continue. I returned this one, and am waiting on a Boss Katana Air, which I am confident will be great! Thanks again Sweetwater!