It looks like a Bluetooth speaker. You know, the kind designed for portable use, so you can blast music from your phone wherever you hang out all day. Except, the Yamaha THR30IIA is actually a desktop amplifier that you can use to plug in a guitar and mic to regale your friends (or annoy them, whichever the case may be) with a strings-and-vocal performance.
That’s right, that tiny speaker-looking rig is an amplifier designed specifically for acoustic guitarists, so you can belt out tunes at parties, street corners, and busy subways without being drowned out by the bustle of your surroundings. Whether you want an amp to practice your open mic set list, record your own unplugged renditions of Katy Perry ditties, or just play out your rockstar dreams on a busy street corner, this thing lets you do that while sounding like an absolute pro.
The Yamaha THR30IIA is a 30-watt desktop amplifier equipped with two 3.5-inch speakers for delivering legitimately big sound in a small package. It has three realistic-sounding mic models, namely dynamic, tube, and condenser, so you can sound like you’re playing with an actual professional setup, along with flat and nylon string settings, so you can use it with any kind of acoustic guitar. To beef up the sound of your playing, it gets compression and chorus modifiers, as well as built-in delay, stereo imager, and reverb effects. Yeah, you can make your music sound a whole lot bigger than just a lone dude plucking on a six-string.
While designed for plugging an acoustic guitar, Yamaha realized many guitar-playing singers will probably be attracted to this thing. As such, they added an XLR input for plugging in a mic, complete with a pro-quality microphone preamp on board to properly prepare the sound signals for amplification. And yes, you can use that input for a second instrument, too, in case you’d rather plug in an acoustic bass or a second guitar.
The Yamaha THR30IIA has a class-compliant USB audio interface that you can use it to hook it up to a PC for recording your music, complete with a bundled recording software from Steinberg if you need it. It also has a Line 6 Relay wireless receiver that you can use to connect your acoustic guitar to the amp wirelessly using a G10T transmitter, along with Bluetooth, so you can pair it with your phone for use as a regular wireless speaker.
Along the top of the amp sits a series of knobs for adjusting the stereo imager, bass, middle, treble, and more, along with AUX and headphone inputs for privately listening to your fingerwork. Other features include a rechargeable battery that can keep it running for up to five hours of operation, a chromatic tuner, a convenient carry handle, an app-based remote for making adjustments without bending down, a weight of 9.7 pounds, and a housing that measures 16.5 x 7.6 x 6.1 inches (width x height x depth).
The Yamaha THR30IIA is available now, priced at $869.