I also needed a practice amp so I went to the big music store in our area and started trying them out. Long story short I went with the VOX AD15, it's bigger then the battery powered one. This little amp rocks gets quite loud and you can get a ton of tones out of it. I think I paid under $200.00. After playing Marshal, Fender, Roland, Crate ext. I went with the VOX, hands down the best bang for your buck in the small amp market. Let us know what works for you. Merry Rockin Christmas, Bill Kelley