A photo of Jonny playing with The Smile in Macerata on July 17, 2022 (picsandrock). Based on his left hand, he’s probably playing Thin Thing. His Ampeg SVT amplifier head can be seen behind him.
In the past, Jonny has generally been happy with smaller bass amps and cabinets (in contrast to his brother Colin, who loves an Ampeg 8x10 cabinet). For years, his main bass amp in studio was a 2000s-reissue Ampeg B-15R Portaflex, which he also used for Supercollider on From The Basement. For Radiohead shows in 2011 and 2012, he just brought an Ashdown 1x15 cabinet, which was probably connected to his Vox AC30 for Supercollider. Jonny rented a new bass combo at each show on the 2016 Junun tour. And for the 2018 Junun tour (opening for Radiohead) he used an Ashdown ABM 300 (or 500) head with the cab from his Ampeg B-15R.
Perhaps the sparser arrangements of The Smile tracks has required Jonny to fill a bit more space with his bass parts, because he’s started to use an Ampeg SVT Classic head and Ampeg 810 cabinet. It’s a notable contrast to Junun songs, where Jonny’s bass took a much more supportive role. The smaller cabinets he used at Junun shows certainly helped Jonny to avoid stepping all over the Rajasthan Express’s complex arrangements. But Jonny also used smaller Ampeg Portaflex amps for The Smile’s Glastonbury show in 2021 and for the Magazine shows in January 2022. So it seems that Jonny wanted the bigger SVT amp and cabinet specifically for stadium shows.
Colin first started using Ampeg heads in the early-2000s, and his SVT-CL heads have a white “SVT Classic” logo. You’d think Jonny would follow suit, he’s instead using a 90s SVT-CL head. The most noticeable cosmetic difference is the “SVT” logo on the amp head, which was briefly red and blue in the late-90s. How important is this difference? Pretty minor. Colin and Jonny’s amps are both from the St. Louis Music era (1986-2005). But it’s interesting that Jonny picked up an older Ampeg, rather than buying or renting a brand new one (like the Fender Super Reverb with a visible tag he used at the Magazine shows).
For The Smile’s rehearsals and Magazine performances in January 2022, Jonny bought or rented a brand new Fender ‘65 Reissue Super Reverb (visible on the left, with a Oberheim SEM-Pro synth resting on top of it) and Ampeg Portaflex PF-50T (just visible in the darkness on the right). The tag is still visible hanging off the Normal Volume control of the Super Reverb.