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I've found not running the master really high is important to keep from the 'grainy' sound mentioned. Full on power amp gain, modelled, isnt what we're used to hearing at a quiet level I don't think!
I'm pretty much with @ICBM here...cleans and light crunch were decent, but distortions were lack lustre, even with MV pushed...I actually thought this improved the gain tones...with MV down I felt the tones were too flat sounding, pushing the MV gave better feel. I can understand its compact, retro-looks appeal, but as an amp I think its over-priced, average sounding overall, and a bit faddy. YMMV of course.
I'm hoping that Yamaha have something up their sleeve to update the THR, its about time they refreshed it with maybe a slightly bigger speaker setup, bluetooth auxilary and a built in looper/foot switch. Their issue will probably be cost based on how much the THR is currently and how much extra functionality they would need to include. Maybe I just need to look at buying a THR100HD and cab! The 100 needs a couple of preset settings though!
Now the amp market is saturated with low-end quality, the £250 price tag (obviously cheaper used, nobody reply saying that, we all know) looks expensive compared to the Blackstar Core series, or the Boss Katana (the Katana 100, a 100 watt amp with more options than you can shake a stick at and utterly giggable, costs the same as a THR) or the Blackstar Fly 3, which for 50 quid does a lot of what the THR does in terms of being tiny and sounding OK.
However they still sell, we have basically a monthly THR thread on here where everyone comes in saying how much they love them, and you can guarantee a retailer like Andertons or one of the others with a big presence online prefer you walking out with a £250 THR than a £90 ID Core Stereo 10.
The new Vox thing that looks like a handbag in Andertons new video sounds to me comically nicer than either the THR or Fender GT40 they put it up against, I thought the Fender sounded sh*t. However the Vox handbag is only marginally cheaper than the THR. Even Blackstar's (IMHO prettier) rival, the Core Beam is still £200.
So why lower the price? If you can sell what you want to sell for £250 you aren't going to lower the price because some other products are better value for money.
My two main gripes are the difference in volume between clean and hi gain - the cleaner channels are much louder - and it would be great to have a footswitch.
Oh, and I still haven't tried the editor software! I'm still using factory settings after all these years so I need to find time to sit down and mess around with it as the consensus is that it sounds even better with some tweaks.
It's interesting that in that Anderton's home amp shootout, the guitar sounds were some of the best I've heard from them for a while, way better than when they use the 'big' amps. I think Rabea did a great job in the mic'ing up and made them sound great. I agree that The Vox sounded the best.
I don't say that because I'm a Vox fanboy or anything daft like that, or even that I don't like my THR (as stated before - love all three models of THRs that I own/have owned) but rather that I think they picked sub-optimal amp models for both the Vox and THR,
The Deluxe model on the Vox is not, in my opinion, even close to being as good as the Dumble Clean, although I realise from what they said that they were trying to compare similar models/tones.
I'm just not sure they succeeded in comparing apples with apples, really.
The 800 model on the Vox, in my opinion (which I think they used IIRC), is one of the weaker of its 'gainy' models, too.
This is all subjective, of course, but I still have my THR10C (for now, it's up for sale) and don't have an axe to grind at all with it, but I'm just finding that the Vox has a lot more adjustability in addition to the greater number of amp models (23 vs 6 on the THR, or something like that).
Sorry to say that the GT40 sounded awful to me, at every step of the way in that video. Shame, as I have a space in my house that would be perfect for one of those, too, if the wife ever allowed it....I'd fully intended to get the Fender, too, until I found the Vox. Handbag looks aside (sack that designer!) it's a great little amp, like I said before, it's kind of a THR on steroids in my opinion.
I'm going to call it that ☺
I'll have to try the Handbag now...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The THR has that kind of retro radio look that wifey was happy enough with in the lounge.
The Vox is like a lot of things though in that you just get used to it after a while. It takes up the same physical space as the THR (will fit my bookshelf, exactly the same width etc) so is no more obtrusive really. I enjoy playing it so much I can easily forgive the design of it and to be honest I don't think about it that much anyway now - i use the bluetooth app too so it's not like I'm constantly fiddling with the controls and eyeballing the amp up close, I do all that from across the room on the sofa normally, so it just sits tucked away doing its thing and has quickly blended into the room.