THR Remote 4+

I’d give this a 4 if it would connect to Bluetooth consistently and stay connected. There’s a slim chance chance it will actually connect when turned on, meaning that my device says it’s connected, but the app isn’t communicating with the amp. And then I have to go through the annoying dance of turning off and on the THR, closing and restarting the app in an attempt to get it to connect. Maybe I need to update the THR software? Idk but if so, the app should tell me if there is an update and how to install. Beyond the connectivity issue, which is by far the worst problem, there are lots of usability improvements that could be made:
1. I don’t want to swipe to access the other effects. These should be located at the bottom of the screen as category tabs. I don’t want to swipe 4 times to get to reverb. If there are too many categories to fit, make the tabs scrollable.
2. It would be nice if there was some kind of a tone guide to the different types of amps and cabinets and how to create specific tones by combining them.
3. Grouping the cabinets and giving more description about them
4. Remembering settings
5. Minor things such as being able to double tap the name of the preset to select all text, visual design padding is a mess.
6. A nice touch would be to have haptic feedback when you turn the dials.

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.