Yamaha THR30 II Wireless Amp

I recently sold a boutique amp. It was the Carr Super Bee 1x12. It was an awesome amp and sounded great. I bought it when it first came out and used it quite a bit. But I had stopped using it as much and I wanted to sell it to someone who could use it more. Since I then had a bit of cash I decided to buy a Yamaha THR30 II Wireless Amp, along with the Line 6 Relay G10T.

Yamaha was one of the first companies to introduce a desktop amp. It’s meant to be an at home tool. This one is the second generation.

I bought a white one. They also come in black and cream color. I purchased it through Sweetwater (the magical Indiana music store). Details on the amp:

• 30-watt, 1-channel 2 x 3.5-inch
• Internal rechargeable battery or AC power
• iOS and Android apps, Windows/OS X apps
• USB 2 connection that allows 2 channels of recording and 2 channels of playback from computer
• Headphone output
• Built in effects (reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, echo, compressor)
• Selection of amp sounds and mic choices (dynamic, tube, and condenser)
• Built in tuner
• Built in Line 6 receiver that works with Line 6 Relay G10T
• Input jack for guitar cable and also to recharge the Line 6 Relay G10T

The amp works fine with an acoustic. Yamaha also sells a desktop amp that is meant for acoustic-electric - THR30IIA.

The effects can be setup and saved from controls on the unit itself or via the app THR Remote. The app connects to the amp via bluetooth. There is a Bluetooth button on the unit. You press it down for 3 seconds to enable pairing. I had no issues with this. The app has a quirky user experience but I didn’t find it that hard to figure out.

I plugged the amp into AC power and plugged the Line 6 Relay G10T into the input port and left it alone for a couple hours. This ensures that both amp and wireless transmitter are charged. The transmitter will blink red when it’s not charged nearly enough, then green blinking when its charged enough and solid green when its fully charged.

Once everything is charged you’ll need to update software for both the amp and the Line 6 Relay G10T. To do this you’ll need to hook up your computer via USB. The port on the Yamaha will need a USB-B male connector. You’ll need to install the THR Remote App from the Yamaha website. You’ll probably also want to install the Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver. The Yamaha doc indicates that they want the USB cable to be 3 feet or less. I was able to use a 6 Feet USB 2.0 Type-A Male to Type-B Male Connection Cable from PWR+. It’s compatibility list did not mention the THR30II amp. It had “Yamaha Digital Piano, Roland Music Workstation, Donner DEP 10 20 45 DDP-80 88 Key Digital Pianos, Alesis, Korg, Casio Keyboard, AKAI Professional, Arturia KeyLab MiniLab, Midiplus, Nektar Impact, Novation, M-Audio MIDI Controller, Native Drum Controller, Pioneer, Hercules DJControl Inpulse, Numark DJ Mixer, Behringer U-Phoria, PreSonus AudioBox Audio Interface, Microphone, Studio Equipment to a Laptop, Computer (Mac PC) and other devices with a USB-B port”. With this big of a list I figured it probably would work and it did. I plugged it into a Anker dongle to convert from USB 2.0 Type-A to USB-C for my MacBook Pro.

Here’s the process I followed to install the Steinberg USB driver.

1. Turn computer off - shutdown.
2. Press and hold power button until computer boots in safe mode.
3. Press on “Options”
4. Select your user profile (enter password)
5. Go to Utilities menu and select “Startup Security Utility” and select your Disc. It will ask for your password again.
6. Select “Security Policy”. This will most likely be set to “Full Security” if you’ve never messed with this before. Change to “Reduced Security” radio button and check the checkbox identified as “Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers”.
7. Click OK and you’ll have to enter your password again.
8. Restart (from menu)
9. Start Steinberg driver install. At the end of the install a dialog will appear “System Extension Updated”. You’ll need to go to “Privacy & Security System Settings” to indicate that the Yamaha driver can be used.

After this I installed the THR Remote app. There were no special steps needed for this.

To hook up the USB cable

1. Remove the transmitter from the input port on the amp
2. Power on the THR30II amp. Make sure you are plugged into AC power. You don’t want it powering down half-way through the upgrade.
3. Plug in the USB cable to amp
4. Plug in USB cable to computer
5. Start THR Remote app

The software should identify the amp and indicate that it must be upgraded. It gives you instructions. It takes a few minutes.

Once the amp is updated it’s time to upgrade the transmitter.

1. Stop the THR Remote app on computer
2. Unplug the USB cable from computer
3. Plug in the transmitter to the amp input port
4. Plug in USB cable to computer
5. Start THR Remote app

The software should identify the Line 6 transmitter and indicate that it must be upgraded. It gives you instructions. It takes a few minutes.

Note: if you don’t need an upgrade then the THR Remote app will just announce that it can see the amp.

Once that was all done I powered on the amp and set it to Acoustic and plugged in the Line 6 Relay G10T to my old acoustic that has a pickup in it. Messed about with the knobs to allow me to hear the guitar and recorded a brief snippet on my phone to ensure it worked.

I fiddled around with the effects for a while to ensure that they all seemed to work. I’ll work with recording to Mac later and post about my experience with that.

All in all it’s a nice tool. It’s got a good sound and the effects are fine. The 4 to 5 hour battery life when unplugged is convenient. You can bring it to a friend’s house and not worry about power cables. The Line 6 transmitter, sold separately, is essential I think. It gets rid of the need for a guitar cable and increases the odds that you’ll use the amp more often.

The amp is good looking and small enough to leave out in your living room. It has a nice orange tube-like glow when turned on.