THR Remote 4+

When you spend $500 on a practice amp… you would expect the app for the amp to be pretty slick. Unfortunately, it seems like Yamaha cut every possible corner on this project. There are bugs everywhere, the UI doesn’t make much sense, it is super laggy, it doesn’t connect automatically when you open the app (even when Bluetooth is paired), changing a setting like turning on/off the LEDs re-sets whatever sound you had. It seems to kind of work the first time you power it on and load the app, but if you switch apps or come back 10 min later, nothing is connected/works. Did a QA team even look at this?

The only upside to this app is you can add in a very good compressor and select a variety of pleasant reverb types which are unavailable on the physical amp. Makes a huge difference tonally.

I got the chance to play with the app and a THR10II at a Guitar Center while waiting to sell my tube amp, and I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far! The app is modern, intuitive, and really expands what you can do with the amp, with no silly in-app purchases to unlock that functionality. The only hiccup I had was that I wasn’t able to get music playing over Bluetooth, but my time at the store was too limited to eliminate user error as the culprit.

I love what the Yamaha team has done already, and I really hope they continue to update the app. There’s just so much potential here. Things like writing a preset from the states of the physical amp dials, rearranging the signal chain, enabling IR support, or maybe even adding a looper (OK, I’d actually pay extra for that) would turn the THR-IIs into absolute monsters.

When it connects to my THR30II it’s great! But frequently it will say it is connected, but the controls won’t work and any changes on amp don’t show up in app. And if you click settings it says no device detected. But under the Bluetooth icon in the app it shows the THR amp and that it is connected. It stops working frequently with me. It will be connected to the amp and I can make changes, then at some point the changes stop taking effect. I don’t know if this is the app or amp, but I never have any other problems with the amp. Quite frustrating.
Update months later: I should have bought a spark go. This app and Bluetooth connection on the Yamaha is so flaky and buggy.