The best cheap bass amps offer satisfactory control, tone, and gobs of power. However, not all bass amps are equal nor do they serve the same purpose. Some are more for practicing and others are for performing with a loud live band. Finding a cheap one I could recommend took a little work.
I took my 30+ years of professional bass playing experience down to Guitar Center, Sam Ash and a couple other music stores to hunt down the best cheap bass amp for practicing. I also wanted a bass amp with enough power to play with a live band. The idea was not to break the bank but still get a certain number of features to practice correctly and support playing with a band.
For practicing in your room, you do not need much power. In fact, I recommend almost all practicing and learning songs can be done with headphones and not with the sound of the bass ringing out into the room. You need a little amp or a preamp that has a headphone jack that cancels the speaker out. An amplifier must have a stereo line in or auxiliary jack that you can plug a mp3, CD, or computer in. I mostly use a computer and plug it into the stereo 1/8” line in of the amp. This way I learn songs from the mp3s I own on my computer or off YouTube. I think, this is the best way to learn to play bass. Playing with a song and hearing the blend of your bass and the song in your headphones will make you a better player faster. Your ears will become accurate at nailing the right notes and song arrangements if you practice this way. In addition, with this method you can turn the bass up and make it sound loud and full without upsetting anyone around you. When I first learned to play, I used this method. I would come home after being out with friends and could plug into my amp and practice late into night without ever waking my parents. The hours you can add to practice, is amazing using this technique.
For a practice bass amp, I recommend the Bass Rockman. This is a headphone amp. There is no speaker involved. It is small and you can take it anywhere with you. Just plug your bass, headphones, and mp3 player into it and you are ready to go. I have used one for years and it has been my main practicing tool. It comes in handy for when I am on the road in hotel rooms too. I play professionally and for learning songs and practicing, I have never needed anything more than this. This is cheap at under $100.
If you want a practice amp with a little speaker, I think the Acoustic B10 is a good choice. It has everything I need in a practice amp. The stereo jack, headphone jack are included and found on the front control plate. The controls are simple and the sound is full and good. I liked it much better than the Fender Rumbles, Peaveys, Behringers, Line 6, or Ibanez bass amps I tried. Most of these sounded tinny, shallow with too much midrange, which I could not get rid of. The Acoustic Amplification Company is back in business and supplying some excellent sounding products. Guitar Center, Musician’s Friend and places like that carry these amps.
Note: Another big plus with the B10 amp was the 1/8” headphone jack. Several other brands had RCA jacks instead. The RCA jacks seem dated to me and a hassle to work with. I feel you must have 1/8” or ¼” jacks just for ease of use.
My second choice after the Acoustic would be one of the Fender Rumbles. They sounded all right to my ear but not as good as the Acoustic B10. Moreover, some models had a lot of extra crap on them like boosts and weird equalization buttons. You do not need all that. The Ampeg SVT Classic is one of the greatest bass amps ever made and only has a couple of controls on it. I feel the more knobs you have to turn the less time you spend playing and the more processed your tone turns out. Stay away from this at first. You can worry about fancy equalization later. It is for suckers on these entry-level bass amps. Simple equipment sounds best.
There are other bass brands out there like Ampeg, Gallien-Krueger, SWR, Eden and Hartke but these amplifiers start to get more pricey.
Bass guitars need a generous amount of power to cut a mix with loud guitar and drums. Cheaper amps are solid-state amps and that is what we are looking for. Good tube amps will cost too much so forget them if you want a cheap bass amp. A powerful cheap solid-state bass amp is needed for a live band. Rule one is get the most power you can afford which will offer you the most headroom. You can always turn a bass amp down but if you top out of power, you are out of luck. Being an underpowered bass player is not good. For example, in 1977 my first bass amp was a Peavey TNT 150 watt amp. It was fine for playing with some friends in my room. However, once we started playing parties and my friends cranked their 50 and 100-watt guitar amps up, my bass sound disappeared into buzzy distorted fuzz. It was not a good fuzz tone either. I purchased an Acoustic 370, which I hooked up to the TNT’s 15-inch speaker. The power was enough but the speaker could not handle the Acoustic’s 300 watts at 4 ohms. Eventually I had to get a better speaker cabinet.
Anyway, I believe you need at least 200 watts for a live band bass amp. This will be enough for a live band in most circumstances unless the band is uncommonly loud. I prefer 500 watts myself for maximum headroom but that puts the bass amp price up above “cheap.” Therefore, we look bass amps that are still cheaper but have no less than 200 watts for playing live.
If you want a bass amp for playing live that is cheap, you will be hard-pressed to find one under $300 that will give you the 200-watt power minimum. You will be more in the under $400 range. You will also be looking at bass combo amps rather than a separate power amp and speaker rig. It would be great if these amps had the stereo and headphone jacks on them but I did not see any that did.
Again, I am impressed with an Acoustic Amplification product. The Acoustic B200 bass amp just blows the competitors away. One of the problems with many bass amps is they claim to be an amount of watts but do not sound that loud. Your view of the volume does not agree with the manufacturer’s power value. However, this amp does deliver on the 200-watt value. It is loud. I like the simple equalization on this amp. You will find it easy to get a good sound fast. With this amp you are able to hook-up an extension speaker as well. When you get better and need more sound for your live band situation, you can just add another speaker to your rig. Later you will find you might need even more power but this bass guitar amp should last you a long time.
My next choice after the Acoustic would be the Trace Elliot 715. This is a well-made amp as well and offers more features. However, the power while rated the same as the Acoustic, does not seem as loud. I am not a fan of all the equalization knobs and gizmos. Too much crap to deal with. I want to play and not twiddle with knobs. However, that said, the amp sounds very good to my ear and I would still buy it if I could not find the Acoustic B200 bass amp. As with the B200, you can add an extension speaker to this combo amp.
Those are my recommendations for a cheap bass practice amp and a cheap bass amp for live band circumstances. You can get a smaller wattage amp that will cover both needs but you will suffer in the live band as soon as you get a drummer and loud guitar player going. I know because I did when I first started playing bass.
One last bass tip that is off topic but I have to say: Always, always, always place your bass on the floor in live performance. Do not put it up on wheels. Take the wheels off and use a dolly to move the box. Do not put the speaker up on a box, chair, or crate. (Unless you are running your bass through a large PA and then you can put it up. I still would not do that but you can get away with it there.) Bass amps must use the ground or floor to reflect much of their sound. This is where standard cabinets get much their low-end. Putting the speaker up off the ground takes that away from them and they sound all midrange with no bottom end. Your job as a bass player in a band is to support the low notes of the chords within the songs. Do not put your amp up. You and the band will suffer. I just saw a bass player recently at an outdoor party do this and his rig sounded like hell. It was painful to listen to.