Well I've been needing a bass amp for a long while now and was planing on holding out for an old Fender Bassman as I really like tube amps.BUT I'm getting old and moving a 2x12 cab and a head plus the pa and other crap needed to play gigs.There are lots of small portable amp's and I checked out a bunch and won't get into the insanity of the venture.I've owned Peavey amps for both bass and guitar so the choice was quike.The Max 112 is a 200 watt single 12" bass amp pretty straight foward just some cool buttons and siple controls,the buttons are a TT boost which as distortion,Punch which is a 6db boost and give's the low end more presence,Mid Shiht which lets you cut or boost the mids,Bright which give's a 10db boost to the hih end.It also a button to use or not the Transtube.Over al light weight,do wish it had an ext. speaker out.So I guess I'm saying if your adding a bass to an acoustic gig or you play with players in an electric band that undersstand "It not how load you play but how good it sounds" a very usable amp at a low price.

Tubes are fine - but for hard-core bass Peavey Solid State is great.

I helped a friend choose a used Peavey TKO 65 (http://assets.peavey.com/literature/manuals/80370366.pdf) recently - it ws a very easy choice. Serious bandwidth, more volume than any sane player could need, and being a single 15" it wasn't too hard to move around.

Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest that solid state amplification for bass is a better option.  I don't know why, technically, but I defer to the experts.  My guess is that it's easier to incorporate control of gain,  eq, in a solid state platform.

Tube bass amps are so much warmer sounding in the low end and with the type of music I'm playing I want lots of bottom.Oh and I'm a hard core base player.I have always preferred 12" speakers not as tight sounding and mid rangy as 10's but also not too flubby sounding as a 15.My all time favorite rig was a Twin Reverb with the 12's replaced  with bass speakers and a 18" sub from a pa rig.