My friend the former cellist wants to learn to play bass. What's a good small combo?
The Ampeg combos are pretty nice. I like the Peavey MAX series, and Acoustic (I think it's GC's in house bass amp brand) has some great combos for the price. I love the MarkBass stuff, but their combos are more for pros than for beginner's just looking for a practice amp.
I was looking at the Hartke HD25 for $130. Know anything about them?
I've got a Hartke HyDrive 210 combo. Honestly - it's not great. The HD25 is probably fine to learn on, but 25W will never cut it in any playing setting (general rule of thumb is that the bass amp needs to be twice as powerful as the guitar players amp).
Used Peaveys are a good way to go. If you can find a used SWR, you will be in heaven. I picked up a Baby Blue 10" combo that is just crazy good. And it probably can double as a boat anchor, it's the physically smallest combo of anything I own, and I swear it weighs 50 lbs. I'm guessing that rocks and lead improve bass tone.