I’m guessing low cost amps don’t go to 11…
Brian
I have a Vox DA 5. I run it with six C cell batteries, if you keep it on the .5 watt setting they last a long time. Even at that setting it is loud enough to annoy the neighbors. It has different settings from crispy clean to high gain metal. I only ever use the “Clean 2” and the "Blues 1,2 and 3 " settings. Plenty of crunch available.
It’s a discontinued model but there are lots of them out there.
Just saw this is kind of a zombie thread but my recommendation stands.
Since this is a zombie, asking this probably isn’t going to hurt anything:
The OP says he was playing a Strat and was focusing on heavy metal. Now, I haven’t had an electric guitar for a long time and am totally out of touch with the HM scene, but will a Strat do for HM? I thought dual-coil Humbuckers were de rigueur. EVH has dual-coil pups in his Frankenstein Strat, right?
I know Peavey had a really nice guitar amp (“Modeling” amp?), last time I checked (5 years ago). I could go research a bit.
I can’t really say much about bass amps, but (and I’m probably wrong) you really need a big speaker (no smaller than 12" and preferably 15") to get decent bass even at low volume. Acoustic had good bass amps back in the day–clean and powerful.
I am fully expecting at least one person, if not several, to facepalm and say Give it up, Gramps, that was then, this is now. 
Just trying to help. Quash my ignorance (but keep it short, it’s already way past my bedtime 
).