YAMAHA GTHR5UK Yamaha THR5 Electric Guitar Amp,beige

I had a couple of false starts. Originally I had a Katana 50, sound was great and oodles of it but it is heavy and bulky and as I am moving to a fresh house I wanted to be able to hide it away more easily. I tried a couple of other options a NUX which had loads of features but not great sound quality, then the Vox Adio air GT which had great polished sound, sort of, but there was a quite a bit of digital noise which I couldn't get rid of, sounded like resonance. The Yamaha had been one that I had liked the look of but I was swayed by the apps and the Bluetooth that went with the the other two. Finally I went with my first thoughts and from day one I realised that the crystal clear sounds of the Yamaha was much more of what I wanted to hear. Not as powerful and the Katana or the Vox so don't quite get the gutsy bass sound but total lack of any extraneous fizz or buzz is a delight. It has a smaller repertoire of effects but as I'm using it with a Boss BR800 I can dial in anything that I can't get on the Yamaha. The clear sound works well with my my electric and my acoustic and it is plenty loud enough to get uncomfortable in a room so it spends most of the time at about 50% volume. Its neat, compact and not many of the reviews I read spent any time on the Cubase LE AI Elements 11 that come with it. Its a faff to download but its a really competent recording solution. As yet I haven't put it head to head with the Boss BR800 but some day I might try. So in summary its a great little practice amp, good value and the best solution to home guitar practice I have found.

After playing guitar at home for a while rather than rehearsing with the band (thanks Covid!) i decided it was time to buy something smaller instead of rigging the amp & pedals up everytime i wanted a blast on the guitar. nailing a decent guitar tone out of even a relatively low powerered 15 watt valve amp in a terraced house is definately a no go!! Anyway, after reading a lot of reviews of different desktop amps, i settled on the THR 5. i knew i wouldn't need the extra amp mods of the bigger brother THR10, and since both amps are rated 10watts, the cheaper THR5 seemed a no brainer. When the amp arrived (next working day...thanks Prime!) i was surprised that it had a power pack with it. i expected to have to settle on using batteries for a while and buying a power supply seperately. hats off to Yamaha. not many other manufacturers would do this. Plugged the amp in, switched it on, admired the glow from the LEDs acting as warn valves, and plugged my Tele in. Settled on the clean amp first, based on a small tweed amp, and within a few seconds i'd dialled in a great tone. added a bit of reverb and noodled away for a good half an hour. Messed around with the effects - bit of delay & reverb gave me the slapback rockabilly sound i use with the band. The Tremelo is fantastic. goes from a warm Ry Cooder style throb to a Link Wray on/off machine gun! Reverb sounds very three dimensional too. hit a note and it seems to bounce between both speakers. A quick run through the other amp mods just shows how versatile this amp is. the Crunch model sounds like an AC 15/30, Lead is pretty much into a Marshall territory, classic bluesy rock tone. Brit Hi-gain and Modern are more Marshall JCM and Mesa sounding models. The amp is very versatile, i play Blues / Rock'n'Roll / Rockabilly and Country so for me, the cleaner amp models work best for what i play. saying that, a quick change to Brit Hi Gain, add some Phaser or Flanger, bit of delay and i was happily playing along to some Van Halen. quick tweak and then i'm into Billy Corgan land before switching back to the crunch model and i'm back in blues territory. The amp is quiet enough to play while the TV is on, but 10 watts is seriously enough to make a noise. i'm planning on taking it to a house band rehearsal soon, just so i can play the electric and get the tones i want instead of bringing the acoustic. The amp also has an aux in so you can plug in any mp3 player- It sounds great, far better than a lot of docking station / bluetooth speakers). Plus it comes with downloadable cubase software for editing / recording - i've not even touched on this yet! One thing i must add, i've been playing guitar for over 30 years, owned and played through a lot of amps. a lot of valve amps that sound great when cranked. i admit to being a bit of a valve snob. this little THR has proved me wrong. it gives THAT tone at bedroom levels. i think i've played guitar a lot more lately since getting this amp. it really is that good, inspires me to pick up and play which at the end of the day is what you want isn't it? Buy one, you won't regret it!!

Possibly the best 150 quid I've ever spent. The dynamic range of this thing - from clean to hi-gain - is quite phenomenal. Possibly the first amp I've ever owned, practice or otherwise, that I haven't spend a year and a day fiddling about with and plugging various external effects into to get a very, very decent sound at low, home friendly volumes. Just superb. Combining the built in amp models with the built in chorus / delay settings offers some very professional sounds; and with the addition of an auxiliary socket, you can play along to your favourite backing tracks to your heart's content with guitar and backing track merging seamlessly. Down graded by a star because of a weird raspy rattle that you have to spend some time playing around with settings to eliminate on clean sounds; but honestly, for an amp that's about the same size and weight as my fiancées handbag - and funnily enough, the same colour - it is a stunningly impressive piece of kit. If you ever get fed up with being confined to one room because of heavy gear / complex setups when you just want to play in the bedroom, in the lounge or wherever for a change, this little practice amp is both amazingly convenient and versatile... Oh, and produces sounds that simply defy the price tag.

Amazing 'home' amplifier that punches way above its weight. I purchased this unit after reading several industry reviews and learning that quite a few well known guitarists use it as a practice amplifier whilst on tour. I am not disappointed! The sound from such a small box is unbelievable and it is packed with excellent features - it certainly does perform like a small tube amp. Well done Yamaha - 5 stars all the way.

My Fender Frontman practice amp starting dying recently (the reverb circuit probably) and I was looking for a small amp with a big sound. Anything I tried under £200 in the shops nearby sounded pretty disappointing, and I was faced with the prospect of shelling out for an expensive Marshall 1w tube amp until I discovered this wee beast. The THR5 is tiny - it's similar in size and shape to an old timey radio or toolbox. Easily small enough to sit comfortably on a desk. The metal frame feels quality and there are cute touches like the tactile power switch. It offers a good selection of amp models - the clean amp is brilliant for jazz and the modern is great for high-gain distorted riffs. Each amp model sounds quite distinct and they offer a lot of versatility. I'm also surprised by how warm they sound - the digital modelling works. The effects are a bit full-on - I'd like a more subtle reverb for example, but they're a welcome addition to the package and, in combination, you can create some very weird sounds. The amp is plenty loud enough for living room practice and it could certainly disturb the neighbours if you turned it up. Can't recommend it highly enough if you're looking for a tiny amp that sounds good and doesn't break the bank.

Great little amp and just the size of a loaf of bread. The output is a loud 10 amps and 2 guitars, instruments, or 1 instrument and a playback device can be inserted all at once. The second instrument is plugged I via the 3.5mm socket which is clean with no effects. The first instrument has the benefits of all the effects which are amazing for this very small amp. It will even take my double bass with electric pickup with absolute clarity. The beauty of this amp is that it'll even run on batteries making it a truly portable creature. It has two 3.5inch full range speakers and I thought 'Hey what sort of a sound can come out of speakers that small' well you will be amazed when you hear them! I give this brilliant little amp 10 out of 10 for being a perfect practice or even a street busking amp or even something you can use at a small gig. If you need more effects and even a setup memory patch then there are other models but of course they are more expensive but based on this amp I'm sure they are worth it.

This amp is fantastic.For the first time, I've been able to get the tone my guitar is capable of at a volume level that I can cope with in the house. All five of the amp models are spot on, and the controls do exactly what you would expect them to do no matter what the "output" volume is. Essentially what you have are five simulated amps: Clean, Crunch, Lead, British High-Gain and Modern, loosely corresponding to a Fender Twin Reverb, Vox AC30, Marshall Plexi, Marshall JCM800 and a Mesa Boogie Rectifier. Unlike other modelling amps, Yamaha claim to model the actual analogue circuitry rather than just modelling the tone - however they do it, it sounds fantastic and the gain and master knobs seem to do exactly what they should do. While this model lacks some of the controls available on its big brother THR10 model, you can access many of these if you connect the amp to a computer and run Yamaha's THR Editor software. In addition to giving access to more controls, this software allows you to save and load presets, much like you can with a purely software-based setup like Guitar Rig. Speaking of which, as I've used Guitar Rig for many years, another function you get through the USB connection is a low latency ASIO input and output. It provides two stereo inputs, one of which is a straight input (i.e. like using a DI box) and the other is tapped from just before the final output. This means I can use this single device both as a standalone unit or as the I/O for Guitar Rig...however, after having had it for a couple of weeks, I haven't yet found myself needing to switch back to using Guitar Rig once - the native sound from the THR5 just sounds so much better. You also get a free copy of Cubase LE AI Elements 8, which gives you a good entry-level DAW solution. The onboard effects (the usual chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo) are pretty good. On the unit itself, there is very little control over the effects (it's all done via one single knob), but it works surprisingly well for more purposes. If you want more control, you can use the THR Editor, though even here, you can only select one of these effects to be applied (no effects chaining) - though you also get control over compressor and gate functions. For reverb and delay, again there is a single control knob on the unit with full control available through the THR editor. When a delay profile is dialled in, you can set the delay speed by tapping the button on the left of the amp. I haven't tried it yet on batteries, but I have tried plugging my MP3 player in to the Aux in socket, and this seems to work well (note that unlike the THR10, there is no separate volume control for either the Aux or PC input - you need to control the volume on the device or PC. The Volume knob on the THR5 only controls the amp's own volume, i.e. your guitar's sound). What Yamaha have, successfully in my view, done is give you an amp which is very controllable via the THR editor when you need it to be (e.g. when you're tinkering to the nth degree for a recording) but when all you want to do is plug in and play, you are not having to constantly twiddle with the controls. The amp feels like it has been designed by a guitar player, rather than an engineer - and it looks great too!

Versatile practice amp and portable to boot.