Yamaha THR100

firepaulmusic

Tried the amp today at Mansons Guitar Show and was totally underwhelmed. Where the hell does Guitarist mag get a Gold Award and 10/10 for this? I really don't usually diss gear but I was expecting so much more....

guitarfishbay

More detailed review?

monquixote

firepaulmusic said:

Tried the amp today at Mansons Guitar Show and was totally underwhelmed. Where the hell does Guitarist mag get a Gold Award and 10/10 for this? I really don't usually diss gear but I was expecting so much more....

That's a shame, how does it compare to the Amp1?

rossyamaha

I wouldn't say you're dissing it. It's not going to do it for everyone. If it was me that took you through it, sorry I didn't do a good job.

rlw

..totally underwhelmed in what way?  We need more.

p90fool

....so much more than what?

I strongly suspect that this amp is not for me tone-wise, but it strikes me as a well-thought out, well-executed product.

Saying it's a total let down then buggering off without saying why you're disappointed is not really helpful tbh.

BGG

See there was one at the LA Amp Show this week, be interesting to see what folk thought of it.

firepaulmusic

Best thing everyone can do is try one for yourselves. It would serve no purpose for me to try to convey why I was underwhelmed by the product. In all honesty a guitar show is a bloody awful place to try an amp. You can't turn the wick up and let it breath properly and you don't really get all the time you need. Suffice to say the guy demonstrating it was very passionate about his new amp and this must be based on some great results. I was expecting to be blown away by a solid state product that competed in every way with a great valve amp as Guitarist mag had reported.....please go and try one and give it a chance.

johnonguitar

firepaulmusic;804229" said:

Best thing everyone can do is try one for yourselves. It would serve no purpose for me to try to convey why I was underwhelmed by the product. In all honesty a guitar show is a bloody awful place to try an amp. You can't turn the wick up and let it breath properly and you don't really get all the time you need. Suffice to say the guy demonstrating it was very passionate about his new amp and this must be based on some great results.

I was expecting to be blown away by a solid state product that competed in every way with a great valve amp as Guitarist mag had reported.....please go and try one and give it a chance.

Isn't it digital?

Cirrus

Isn't it digital as opposed to what?

Hertz32

Solid state? As he proposed in his 2nd last line of his post :P

firepaulmusic

OMG boys, solid state/digital. When you're over 50 isn't it all the same? It aint valves....

ICBM

firepaulmusic said:

OMG boys, solid state/digital. When you're over 50 isn't it all the same? It aint valves....

No, it's very different. Solid-state analogue and digital modelling are not the same thing at all, even though they use the same physical technology - and in fact, it would be theoretically possible (if you had a building about the size of the Pentagon to put it in, a power station to run it and you could stop valves failing all the time) to build a digital modeller using valves.

But I understood exactly what you meant .

english_bob

firepaulmusic said:

Tried the amp today at Mansons Guitar Show and was totally underwhelmed. Where the hell does Guitarist mag get a Gold Award and 10/10 for this? I really don't usually diss gear but I was expecting so much more....

Okay.

Only then you say:

firepaulmusic said:

Best thing everyone can do is try one for yourselves. It would serve no purpose for me to try to convey why I was underwhelmed by the product. In all honesty a guitar show is a bloody awful place to try an amp. You can't turn the wick up and let it breath properly and you don't really get all the time you need. Suffice to say the guy demonstrating it was very passionate about his new amp and this must be based on some great results. I was expecting to be blown away by a solid state product that competed in every way with a great valve amp as Guitarist mag had reported.....please go and try one and give it a chance.

So if it you won't say why you were underwhelmed, only give reasons why your opinion doesn't matter, why start the thread?

Cirrus

Hertz32;804919" said:

Solid state? As he proposed in his 2nd last line of his post :P

Believe it or not I can and did read that, just wanted to clarify because it's not either/or so it didn't really make sense - it's a digital amp modeller with a solid state power amp, so it's both.

firepaulmusic

english_bob said:

firepaulmusic said:

Tried the amp today at Mansons Guitar Show and was totally underwhelmed. Where the hell does Guitarist mag get a Gold Award and 10/10 for this? I really don't usually diss gear but I was expecting so much more....

Okay.

Only then you say:

firepaulmusic said:

Best thing everyone can do is try one for yourselves. It would serve no purpose for me to try to convey why I was underwhelmed by the product. In all honesty a guitar show is a bloody awful place to try an amp. You can't turn the wick up and let it breath properly and you don't really get all the time you need. Suffice to say the guy demonstrating it was very passionate about his new amp and this must be based on some great results. I was expecting to be blown away by a solid state product that competed in every way with a great valve amp as Guitarist mag had reported.....please go and try one and give it a chance.

So if it you won't say why you were underwhelmed, only give reasons why your opinion doesn't matter, why start the thread?

Ok English Bob, if you insist:

I was expecting to be initially greeted by a full and round clean sound as I personally would expect from any great (and not so great) valve amp. If it's a bit juicy (as in slightly sags when you dig in) all the better. I wanted to initially get this as a starting point because I think that digital modelling (whatever) amps 'punching at the weight' of valve amps should at least pass the initial test we would all put a decent valve amp through. If a decent valve amp fails at this point I (and I believe most of us) would normally walk away so why should this be any different? At this point I was greeted by a lack luster and weedy clean sound and I actually commented to the Yamaha guy that he wouldn't sell this to me on the strength of that sound. Soon I was getting into the Crunch and Lead settings and was getting OK results from my point of view but nothing to rival my previous Shiva or current 25/50 Marshall (IMO of course). The best bit was when you combined the two amps and then the sound filled out in the bottom end and rounded off considerably. This was pretty good but still not enough to convince me. My main point was wondering how Guitarist magazine arrived at a 10/10 Gold Award which to my mind means this thing exceeds expectations in very department and succeeds in all it's aims.....again - go and try one for yourself.

digitalscream

Well, time for a necrobump.

One of my neighbours got a THR100HD and asked me if he could come round to muck with the settings (he only has iPads, so no settings app).

My original opinion of these things was that they're totally useless to me. I simply have no need for any of the features, yet it seems to lack where my needs are.

I've been playing with it for the last half an hour, just plugged into my studio monitors, and...I totally get it. It sounds great, even with the stock impulses.

Even better for the fact that I could easily just rock up to a venue without a cab and plug straight into the PA.

The only thing I'm not convinced about is the price. At £400, it'd be great. At £600+, it's starting to compete with something I'd much rather have - the Victory Kraken. Sadly, I can't justify either of them.

guitarfishbay

Any clips? Have you tried it through your real cab? IIRC the impulses are Ownhammer, who do great stuff.

digitalscream

guitarfishbay said:

Any clips? Have you tried it through your real cab? IIRC the impulses are Ownhammer, who do great stuff.

Not at the moment on either count - I'm a bit pushed for time.

Still, I'm mightily impressed.

My problem is that if I did get one, I'd probably not do much with it over my current amps (other than have the option of not bothering with a cab). Therein lies the rub - I use a JCA22H, and I can get three of those for the price of a THR100HD...and still have enough change for a night at the bar.

handsomerik

I heard on a guitar nerds podcast a week or so back that all the THR100 amps had been recalled. Not sure why or if it's true but the boys on the podcast are usually in the know.

rossyamaha

handsomerik;891563" said:

I heard on a guitar nerds podcast a week or so back that all the THR100 amps had been recalled. Not sure why or if it's true but the boys on the podcast are usually in the know.

Yeah they were but it's all sorted now. An incredibly specific fault that probably nobody would ever be able to make happen. That said, they fixed it, replaced all the wrong ones and we're back on track now.