I am a bass player primarily and I think it's just the best place to start. My humble and quite uneducated opinion.
I checked out some Warwick practice amps at music connection and I was absolutely blown away at the powerful low end that you can get out of those tiny things! If I hadn't gotten the deal on my amp that I did, I would definitely go for one of those first. When starting out, low end was what I enjoyed hearing in my bass amp. A lot of bass amp, even more expensive one don't give the low end like those!
http://www.warwick.de/modules/produkte/produkt.php?submenuID=14673&katID=24349&linkID=48498&&cl=EN
I thought those sounded really great!
Just a word of advise, just as the birds fly at the call of danger, sometimes fighting when everyone is running is as silly as beating a tree with a stick!