4 Best Battery Powered Bass Amps for Ultimate Portability!

The Boss Dual Cube LX is an absolutely incredible little amp. There is so much going on in such a small, compact package.

Right off the bat, I was blown away by just how many features are on this amp. Usually with these portable amps you will get some basic EQ, volume, gain, maybe an extra effect.

The Cube LX is simply stacked. Full 3-band EQ, multiple effects, multiple gain types, multiple rhythms (with variations), and even a looper. At the back you even get a stereo line out.

On top of all these features, the amp also still sounds great. Bass sounds great through this amp. The cleans are clear and crisp, and even the distortion sounds great.

For busking, the Cube LX has multiple connection options. You can either connect with USB or Aux, and it even has Bluetooth if you don’t want to mess around with extra cables.

You are going to need some extra batteries. The Cube LX uses 8 AA batteries. I am sure the extra batteries are to compensate for the added features, and I didn’t notice it running out of power faster than other amps.

The big downside here is the price. The Cube LX is quite a bit more expensive than other battery powered combo amps for bass.

But the price makes sense considering everything it does. I also feel like it is more than worth it. The looper alone justifies the price for me.

Blackstar is an outstanding amp company. While many other manufacturers have focused on making their larger amps more practice-friendly, Blackstar has gone in the opposite direction to try and make their small practice amps more powerful.

The Blackstar Fly 3 shows that this endeavour has certainly worked. For a little 3-watt amp, the Fly 3 is loud. It also sounds fantastic.

But that isn’t too surprising. Blackstar amps are known for their incredible sound, but even for its small size, the Fly 3 stacks up quite well against its larger cousins.

Bass sounds great through this. There is more than enough low end here so that your bass doesn’t sound thin. 

In terms of features, the Fly 3 is fairly bare bones. You get volume, gain, EQ, and compression. Considering this is meant as a practice amp, I think you are getting all the controls you will likely need.

A really cool feature on this amp that I like is the SUB control. This adjusts the level of the octave below what you are playing. Basically, this control beefs up your bass sound, giving you more low end. 

This amp is just overall fantastic. It works as a great practice amp, but is equally great for busking, taking it with you on holiday, whatever.

Its compact size and light weight makes it extremely portable. You can easily throw this amp in a backpack to take it anywhere.

And all of this for less than $100. What more could you want?

The JOYO Mini Bass is quite the interesting little amp. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of other battery powered amps, but what it does have is quite good.

The first thing that caught my eye with this amp is its design. It has a very sleek, ultra-modern look. The aesthetic of it is quite minimal, something that I am a bit of a fan of.

That minimalist design carries over to its controls. You are only getting volume, tone, and gain. You also get a headphone and aux input, along with a normal/drive switch.

The amp sounds pretty good for its size and price. The tone is great both clean and overdriven. You aren’t getting an overly vibrant bass tone here, but it isn’t dull and flat either. 

The tone control also doesn’t add too much variety. I ended up keeping it somewhere just over half way.

Volume is perhaps the biggest let down. This is a 10-watt amp, so it has a decent amount of volume. But there are 5- and even 3-watt amps out there that blow this amp out of the water. 

I do like that you can attach a regular guitar strap onto this amp. This lets you walk around with the amp while playing.

It is fairly lightweight, so the added weight isn’t a problem. What I did find was a problem was the amp’s size. It tends to get in the way or slips to the back, making it harder to here. I was constantly adjusting the amp while carrying it. You also need a spare strap since the amp doesn’t come with one.

Laney is no stranger when it comes to making exceptional amps. Their Mini Bass NX takes that high quality and puts it into a small, portable practice amp.

The Mini Bass NX is a very well made, cool looking little amp. It feels solid and has a sleek, almost unassuming look.

The sound is also quite decent, but does fall a bit short for me. I noticed a bit of boxiness when the tone and tilt is set flat. Turning up the tilt does clean up the sound a bit, and rounds out the tone quite nicely. I would recommend setting the tone and tilt high, then dialing them back to get a fuller bass sound.

What is really cool about this amp is the LSI connection. This allows you to connect the amp to a smartphone or tablet with the included LSI cable.

This effectively turns the amp into a modeling amp. You can then use the Tonebridge app to change the sound of the amp from a selection of thousands of bass tone.

Say you want to practice a specific Red Hot Chili Peppers or Metallica song, you just need to search for it on the app, and voila, the correct bass tone. I really appreciate features like this since they make practicing so much easier.

This is definitely a practice amp only. The amp has quite a bit of volume, but I think you might have a hard time with it busking on a busy street.