Yeah, these small amps really don’t do the bass any justice. I had to sell my Orange Crush 20b, which is a 20 watt bass amp. It would distort my. Stingrays from open A to open E. it would stop distorting at around C on the A string.
It would also distort with my ESP and Ibanez on Open E if the Active Bass Pass was all the way up and the volume were cranked.
I would have to up the gain all the way and turn back the Volume and Bass pass on the active EQ in order to not get distortion, even then, if I played the strings hard, I would get distortion.
I am not 100% sure on that amp, if it was the Gain on the AMP that was getting overdriven (I suspect this is the case) or the 8" speaker couldn’t take it.
I have heard plenty of bass amps with 8" speakers (2 x 8) or smaller (4 x 3 In the Roland Micro Cube) that can handle the bass, so it could just be the 20w amp and the gain stage on it that can’t handle it.
If you want really small and really light, and that is more important then price, the Roland Micro cube would be a good choice, it is tiny, and has lots of features.
but expensive at $300.
I have seen them going for as low as $75-$100 on the 2nd hand market.
Now, I have not played thru one myself, I have only heard great things. If I were to look at one, I would take my stingray and test it out.
Rays have very hot pickups, so if it can handle it, most likely, other basses can, that is why I would choose it for the test.
and yeah, anything in the Fender Rumble line is great.
They are light too, so even if they are a tiny bit bigger then you are looking at, they are still very light