As my lovely TC Electronics rig tends to live at the Fuzz Cave these days I have been looking for a small but decent practice combo to keep in my home office. Top of my list is Roland’s Micro Bass Cube RX – but my eye has been caught by the coolness of the very stylish Yamaha THR10.
Ok, so the Yamaha THR5 and THR10 are definitely aimed at guitarists – just check out the video below for proof – but I have noticed the ‘bass’ option on the selector switch so I am still intrigued.
Yamaha are looking to get the warm tube tones of a decent guitar amp but in a more usable way. Most of us aren’t fortunate enough to be able to crank up a tube head at home in order to get the best out of it – that’s generally something we’re only able to do in rehearsals, the studio or on stage. The THR10 not only recreates the throaty sounds of a tube amp it manages this at a volume level that won’t have the neighbors calling the cops on you.
“Recreating the exact response and experience of playing a tube amp thanks to Yamaha’s exclusive Virtual Circuitry Modeling (VCM) technology; ultra-realistic reverbs and effects to complement your playing and push you further; and true hi-fi quality stereo audio playback that no guitar amp can get close to – all wrapped up in a package designed to mirror how you really play off-stage.”
The gorgeous retro looks includes five amp types and pedal effects like delay, reverb, phaser, flange, and chorus. Once you’ve fiddled about with the settings (something that guitarists do without end it seems) you can then save your sounds to one of the five presets.
You can even ‘disguise’ the THR as something more than your practice amp as it has a 1/8 audio input so you can hook it up to your smartphone, etc It’s good looks continue when the lights go down thanks to its ‘virtual tube illumination’ – a soft warm orange light inside that fills the room with a nice glow.
It also packs a tuner and can run on battery power as well as AC and chucks out 10watts (2x5W) or noise. You can plug it into your puter via the USB and record your masterpieces using the bundled Cubase AI.
I need to test this out first but it sure looks good 
