Matty
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2010
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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Righto, let me start by saying what this amp is not. It's not a stage amp, nor a rehersal or jam session amp.
It's a practice/noodling tool. And it's pretty bloody good at it. The 10C is the low gain boutique modelling version, theres a 10X for high gain and the original THR10 for a more versatile range of amps. There's 5 amp sounds to choose from, starting with a clean Fender, Matchless DC30, Blues Jr, Bluesbreaker and The Dr Z Mini Z. The amp sims sound great and react to playing nuances pretty much just like a cranked tube amp.
There's also plenty of effects to choose from. The usual fare including tremelo, phaser, chorus, reverb and on the 10C you get a nice tape echo sim instead of digital delay. They all sound really good if your'e into that sort of thing.
So what makes these different from all the other small budget modellers out there? Firstly it's 5w + 5w stereo so with the aux input it doubles as a boom box, it's battery powered so it's portable. There's gain and master dials as well as a treble, middle, bass but with separate volumes for guitar and aux in. This is cool because you can crank the master and lower the gain on the amp sim for great power section crunch and dynamics and control the overall volume with the main guitar volume dial. And the aux can be blended with the guitar so you can play along to backing tracks on your MP3 player of choice with the backing track playing in crystal clear stereo unaffected by the amp sim. There's also a headphone jack for silent operation.
The verdict. While it's always going to be preferable to crank up a good tube amp my reality is I can't always do that. And for those times the THR is perfect, whether late at night while Mrs Matty sleeps or Sunday arvo out the back with a few beers.
It's a practice/noodling tool. And it's pretty bloody good at it. The 10C is the low gain boutique modelling version, theres a 10X for high gain and the original THR10 for a more versatile range of amps. There's 5 amp sounds to choose from, starting with a clean Fender, Matchless DC30, Blues Jr, Bluesbreaker and The Dr Z Mini Z. The amp sims sound great and react to playing nuances pretty much just like a cranked tube amp.
There's also plenty of effects to choose from. The usual fare including tremelo, phaser, chorus, reverb and on the 10C you get a nice tape echo sim instead of digital delay. They all sound really good if your'e into that sort of thing.
So what makes these different from all the other small budget modellers out there? Firstly it's 5w + 5w stereo so with the aux input it doubles as a boom box, it's battery powered so it's portable. There's gain and master dials as well as a treble, middle, bass but with separate volumes for guitar and aux in. This is cool because you can crank the master and lower the gain on the amp sim for great power section crunch and dynamics and control the overall volume with the main guitar volume dial. And the aux can be blended with the guitar so you can play along to backing tracks on your MP3 player of choice with the backing track playing in crystal clear stereo unaffected by the amp sim. There's also a headphone jack for silent operation.
The verdict. While it's always going to be preferable to crank up a good tube amp my reality is I can't always do that. And for those times the THR is perfect, whether late at night while Mrs Matty sleeps or Sunday arvo out the back with a few beers.
