Egnater IE4 Guitar Preamp

4 channel preamp with all-tube circuit path. Each channel has independent controls with gain, treble, mid, bass, presence and volume. The clean channel has a bright switch. Two output jacks on back with master volume (the master volume is apparently a feature of the 'newer' IE4s and not seen on older ones). The master volume on the back is inconvenient so I control the overall volume through the power amp. One input on front and one on back. MIDI in and thru ports on back, but the ports don't supply power for a footswitch. Two 1/4" jacks on back for remote switching if you don't use MIDI. There is no effects loop, and the signal coming out of the back is fairly hot depending on how you have the master volume set, so some effects may not work well. This is the only downside if you have a substantial effects train that you want after the preamp.

I usually run a Jackson USA soloist (Jazz/JB pickups) into this and then into a Rivera TBR-3 and then an Engl 2x12 with V30 speakers. The sound quality is incredible and can handle jazz, country, blues, rock and metal (but maybe not extreme metal). As previous reviews have mentioned, the detail you hear through the preamp is amazing with each note coming through. It will force you to be a better player.

Channel 1: The clean channel. With the gain turned up, you can start to get some breakup. Good for jazz and country.

Channel 2: Plug in a strat, face Texas and channel Stevie. My least used channel because I usually don't go for the blues thing, but when I am in the mood, this is it.

Channel 3: Straight up Marshall which by adjusting the gain control, will give you from early Marshall through JCM800.

Channel 4: Hot rodded JCM800. The extra stage in this channel means that you can not clean up this channel by turning down the gain. This channel has extra sizzle, crispness and sustain that channel 3 doesn't have.

The distortion from channel 3 and 4 isn't brutal in the Engl/Bogner sort of way, but instead is very much in the 80's/90's Marshall brown sound sort of vein.

This is one of the best sounding preamps/amps that I have ever heard. My purchase of this essentially ended my search for an amp that would do almost everything.

The only problem I have had with it I suspect is due to the solder points on the circuit board degrading. I say 'suspect' because I have never taken it in for repair and pressing on the filter caps resolves the problem, hence my suspicion that their solder points are going bad. That said, I would never take this out on a gig anyway because they aren't made anymore and the unit is essentially irreplaceable. It stays in my studio rack and gets used on an almost daily basis without problem (except for above).

I have talked with Bruce Egnater, but it is sometimes hard to actually talk to someone at the shop since you almost always get bumped over to the answering machine. If you can talk to Bruce, he is great and will answer all your questions.

If my IE4 were stolen, I would definitely get another one if I could find one on the used market. Some people out there claim tone mojo resides in the red-faced versions, but there isn't anything different in any of the IE4's with different face plates. Along with the red and standard silver, there are supposed to be some blue, green and gold ones. Regardless, they were all hand assembled by Bruce and his wife, and there really isn't any difference in the circuit.

I like best the tone and the individual detail of the notes, the different character in each channel and the fact that each channel has an independent EQ, unlike other preamps that have a shared EQ stage for several channels. I like least the lack of an effects loop and the master volume on the back. It would also be nice if the MIDI system would supply power for a footswitch.

Overall, this is the best sounding piece of guitar equipment that I have found, and I don't regret for one minute spending the cash on it.

well I have gone from a Bogner Ecstasy to this IE4 by Egnater and I must admit 'damn it's sooooo much easier to use and dial in the tone I need night in night out.
All features you need it's here.

Phenomenal! I would have to say it equals my ecstasy for pure tone. The clean channel is so lovely and I use my T-rex reverb pedal through the loop so none of the tone is sucked away at all and having reverb with the clean just adds that little more to it's sound overall : )
The lead channel is made for soloing, sustains for days and just like my Bogner it can get a pretty nice dirty sound but I would have to admit it is not intended for this type of music but for solo/instrumental think Vai, Satch, Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray, Gilbert, Petrucci and Moore and the rest then this preamp is a perfect choice.

no problem so far

never needed help from customer support at egnater.

I have to give it a 10 as it has done more than I imagined. I paid $4000 for mine at a local music shop which is the price you pay for quality gear here in Australia. I knew for this amount of money I could also get a good tube amp but after trying different things over the years and having my Bogner I gave the IE4 a blast and it was what I was after. Am very happy with the tone and it's very sensitive to your playing ability which helps with improvement also if your chops ain't too flash.
Again always best to try before you buy but the egnater IE4 is one I personally recommend to anyone.

Semplice ed efficace. Questo pre ha 4 canali totalmente indipendenti e totalmente valvolari (nessun transistor!!!!) , swithabili via midi.....Niente di pi?? niente di meno. Tutto ci?? che serve per generare un suono a dir poco divino. Nessun effect loop, nessun reverbero. Tutto ci?? che pu?? intaccare la qualit?? del suono non ?? stato messo su questo pre. In questo modo Bruce Egnater ha ottenuto un risultato straordinario in termini di resa sonora.
Eccellente la fattura.
Degno di nota il trasformatore toroidale, che garantisce corrente stabile alle valvole senza nessun fruscio derivante dalla rete. Valvole super sselezionate di fabbrica.

Questo ?? il punto forte di questo pre: il suono. Si possono tirare fuori centinaia di suoni tutti godibili e fantastici da questo gioiellino. I fruscii sono inesistenti(anche sul canale 4: il pi?? distorto di tutti).
La dinamica ?? eccellente. Suoni corposi, caldi, con tanto sustain, botta, ..il miglior suono che abbia mai sentito, sia come puliti (cristallini, molto fenderish), che come crunch (i miei preferiti....eh eh) e infine anche come solo. ECCEZIONALE.

Ragazzi, che dire: se trovate uno di questi pre in giro non lasciatevelo sfuggire. E' in assoluto uno dei migliori preampli sul pianeta: senza dubbio. Gran suono, versatilit??, qualit?? costruttiva,...che volere di pi????!!!??

ECCELLENTE. Il migliore acquisto che potessi fare.

I bought this amp secondhand in january 2006 (don't know when it's build) because I wanted a good tube-pre-amp to replace my JMP-1 with wich I played for a lot of years. I was planning to buy a CAE 3+ (because I love the sounds of Lukather), but then I became aware of the Egnater-amp. I stared reading the reviews that were written here and after that I became curious. I found someone who had an Egnater in his rack and tried it with my own guitar. That's when I knew I had to find this amp (although they were out of production already). I found one secondhand and I'm glad I bought it. Features are already described in the other submissions so what's more to say about it. Well, there is something. Some people "complain" there's no effectsloop onboard. I had one on the JMP1 and also used it. Now, I go directly via my Exef footcontroller, Wah-pedal and volumepedal into the Egnater, then into my G-Force and then into my VTH 2:50 poweramp directly into my two 25th Aniversary 1 X 12"-Marshall cabs with Celestions (because there is no effectsloop so there is no other way). I was astonished when I started to play around. The effects of the G-Force sounded way, way better now, so my conclusion was that the JMP-1 effectsloop always took away or absorbed a lot of the quality of the effects of my G-force. Now I'm glad there's no efectsloop on it. My delay, chorus, reverbs etc. sound way better now!
About the midi switching I can only thing that's it's very easy to use and it works great, no problems. I turned on midichannel 16 on the backside of the Egnater (all the little buttons "down") wich works as an Omni-mode and I program 001, 002, 003 or 004 (as there are 4 channels on the amp) on my footcontroller and my Exef nicely switches to the channel I progammed on it. And that without help from others, I now verry little of computers or midi-implementation, but I found out how it worked within 5 minutes!
Only little negative thing is the mastervolume on the backside, it would be easier when it was put on the front, because I often use this knob when I play live when my sound is too loud or too soft, to adjust it to the total bandvolume. Now that's not possible anymore, so I use the two volumeknobs of the VHT. But this really is not an item to be honest.

Well, what's more to say about the sounds what's already written in the other submissions? A lot I think. It has 4 channels which sound really great. I use channel 1 for e real clean sound and the other 3 channels for different kinds of overdrive/distortion. The channels all sounds great. I always was happy with my JMP1 which is not a bad pre-amp (although some people tend to exaggerate how bad it is), but there is of course a difference. You can here this is really all tubes without any shit between it like the JMP1 (of coursem because the JMP1 was progammable and then there's a lot of extra stuff needed in an amp). The JMP1 soundedn better than transistor amps like the rocktron proGAP, becasue it has tubes, but because of the extra stuff for programming the JMP1 it effects the tubes dynamics a lot. I never heard it untill I bought the Egnater. Now I could compare them. The Egnater is a lot more dynamic which I like very much.
I use this amp for all different kind of styles because I play in a soulband (where I use the clean channel a lot, and it's great for funky rhythms, it really hits your ears!). I also play in a Spingsteencoverband where I can use channel 2 a lot for a soft overdrive (by the way, I use my rack with 2 Valley Arts Custom Pro's and a Tommy's Special Strat all equiped with EMG's (H-S-S) and a Blade RH-4 Classic). I also play in an allroundcoverband where I play a lot of different music. Here I use also my channel 3 and 4. Really great. It goes from verry clean to heavy distorsion. I use the G-force to make slightly different sounds by using the "drive" effect which is like having an overdrive-pedal in your G-force. Great to make in-between sounds between the 4 channels! By using this you can have distortion sounds which are simply tho heavy too use really. Of course, if you use this effect normal it's great because now you can program effects which make it possible to hve more than the 4 channels of the Egnater (of course there's also the possiblity of using your volumeknob on the guitar, but with the G-force's drivechannel you can program the sounds and with one kick on the button you have another great sound beside the already 4 fantastic channels). The G-force doesn't effect the soundquality of the Egnater, so that's great, the dynamics stay!
I use the noisegate of the G-Force but only for a little bit. I use it somewhat more on channel 4 because this channel tends to make the most "noise", because I use the gain on this channel heavily for a great singing leadsound (based on Lukather's sound). It doesn't effect the dynamics. Great.
I can only say here this is a really great tube pre-amp and I'm glad I replaced it instead of keep using my JMP1, because you hear the difference between the 2 amps.

It's difficult to say something about this part because I don't have it that long. Until now it works great, although it is secondhand (I'm the third owner). Hope it stays that way.

Cannot really say something about this part, exept that the guy who I bought it from mailed Bruce Egnater for 2 missing knobs on the front and backside of the amp and they were send to him within 2 weeks (a bag of about 8 knobs, for free!!). It says something about mister Egnater, so I guess when there's a problem and you mail him, he will try to help you.

I've been playng for about 22 years now and I used an JMP1 before. I also owned a Rocktron pro-GAP, a VHT-pre-amp (I think it was the Valvulater GP3) and a Brunetti Star-T-rack. The Egnater is the best of them all when you ask me, although the VHT pre-amp also wasn't bad and had more options. But I could not get used to the distortionchannel of the VHT, so I sold it and kept looking further.
i hope my Egnater never gets stolen or lost, but if, them I would go on looking for another one or maybe try to find an CAE-3+ (after trying it of course). I cannot say that I hate anything on this amp, it looks great and sounds great, and I bought it for a much more reasonable price than they ask for secondhand CAE's and I doubt if the CAE's sounds better (and they have only 3 channels). I can get my Luakther kind of sounds out of this one and a lot more! If you are looking for a good and professional tube-preamp I suggest you also try an Egnater before buying another amp. i was planning to keep using my JMP1 besides it first, but now I know that I don't need it anymore (by using the "drive"effect of the G-Force I have the same flexibility as an programable amp like the G-Force, only better and with full tubesound!

For 1000 euros, i think it is a gangue. Very cheap for what is.
My IE4 was made in September 1993. Egnater wrote the date and singned in the board.
Four channels.
Fender clean (Twin), Clean with bite for blues and dirty, Marshall overdrive-distortion, and high gain (like a Soldano but better).
The clean channel has compression if you get up the gain.
No FX loop, but i use Eventide H3000, never mind.
Two outputs.
Midi controllable.
Seven tubes.
Is written "No Transistors!"

I play several styles. Pop, rock, heavy, fusion, blues...
The IE4 is perfect.
For Heavy metal riffs is the better sound (channel 3), but if you want a compact sound, you will need a triaxis or JMP-1. Egnater reproduces every notes. Every!!!!. No a sound with a chord, but every notes of the chord. It is for this, you can not have a "chunk" sound.
But the sounds are awesome.
The best Fender, Marshall and lead sounds that you can have.
You nned a good poweramp.
I have a Strategy 500 of Mesa boogie. (4 x 12AX7, 8 x 6L6 and 4 x 6550).
It is the realest thing i have ever seen. Tone of Life.
I bought it two weeks ago, and i play several hours every days. I don't use effects now.
The clean is perfect, and the Marshall channel. More gain that you never will use.
If a had to use only a word i will say: TONE.

I think yes.

How can Egnater write back in a day?
He does it.
I wrote him for the schematic and he wrote into 24 hours.

I had several amps (Roland, Peavey, Marshalls, Fenders...) but the Egnater IE4 sound better. I had MP-1, JMP-1 and Rockmaster. Egnater sounds better. Sounds real.
I play guitar for 20 years.
Egnater IE4 it the sound, it is my sound.

I have the Egnater IE4, Red Box, no Rocktron. Made by Bruce Egnater in 1993. I bought it used, but it is "new".
Four channels of pure tube tone. PURE TUBE TONE, no transistor. In the front panel you can read below a icon "No Transistors".
The tubes are very impotant in this preamp. No in JMP-1 or Triaxis, because they have transistors too.
4 channels is all what you need. Clean, clean 2 with bite and crunch, pure tone Marshall (better gain, eq and tone than Marshall), and ultra sustain.
No FX send/return. Never mind if you have a Tc G-Force or Eventide. If you use other fx, you tone will be changed.
You can change the chanel via midi. Two midi conectors.
It has 2 output, 2 jack for changing chanels, midi in/out, and 2 guitar inputs.
This is a Pre-Rocktron IE4. Egnater made only a few IE4 red box. Hand made for him. a very good work. Seven tubes.
The tubes are very important because they do the sound here.

It sounds great. Awesome.
1.- Fender clean. Very dynamic, but if you attack strong, you will get pure tube compression. The 6 string sounds a bit muddy, very compressed, like in a real pure tube amp. (this is a pure tube and only tube preamp). You have 3 positions switch for normal, more bright, and much more bright.
2.- SRV. Pure blues and funk tone. Ultra clean with low gain, and bite or dirty with high gain. If you play blues or funk, this is your chanel. Do you want pick attack? Here you have.
3.- Pure Marshall tone. With gain in 2, you get AC/DC tone. Sure!!!! Gain 4, pure Marshall with a lot of sustain. Cream. Pop-rock and Heavy metal tones. Do you have a Plexi, JCM800 and JCM900? Here you have. All this a and more gain.
4.- Sustain. This channel is what Marshall should be.
You have not modern tones here. You have autentic tones. No chunk. With 3 and 4 channels you can play heavy metal, but you always listen all your notes. JMP-1 and Triaxis, sounds like a pipe. You play a chord and you obtain a sound, like a pipe sound. With IE4 you play a chord and you obtain all chord notes playing together. IE4 no for Death metal. You can use it for this music, but no chunk, only definition. If you need a dirty tone, choose JMP-1 or Triaxis.

The mine was made in 1993. No problems.

B. Egnater write back my emails in 24 hours. Who else?

I play guitar for 18 years. I am a professional musician. The tone is very important in a guitar. If you have a bad tone, the people are annoying when listen to you. If you have a beautifull tone, the people like your tone.
I will not sell this preamp.

Made in 1998. Egnater by Rocktron model. Four fully independent channels. Master volume control. Two outputs. Two inputs (front and back). No tone killing effects loop. Just tone, tone, tone. Very high output. It does more than anyone would/should need.

I play the ie4 through a VHT 2150 power amp and a Marshall 1960a cab with an "X" pattern of Vintage 30's, and the stock 75's. No effects, because you really don't need them with this good of a tone. The guitar I mostly use is a Les Paul with Tom Anderson pickup's. This preamp is simply amazing. The clean channel is by far the richest, fullest, and warmest clean tone I've ever heard. That comes from a Bogner Shiva owner. The 2nd "SRV" channel is straight up Marshall crunch, and is monsterous with a tubescreamer in front of it. The third and fourth channels are very alike, except the fourth channel does not compress as easily, and there are more mids in this channel. These channels sound HUGE for chording and soloing, but lack for chunk and tightness that most metal players look for. These channels are very punchy, and are reminiscent of the older Boogie Mark series amps. I'd like to emphasize the clean channel because it is soooooo good. It is one of those sounds which you don't need and chorus, delay, or reverb, because it is just so rich sounding. As one guy here said that this channel is worth the price of the preamp, it is. I still use a Mesa Triaxis, and a Voodoo Lab preamp(also amazing) for my heavy chunk sounds, because the Egnater does not provide those tones. It is much smoother, but still has tons of gain. Harmonic overtones occur very quickly when channel 3 and 4 are pushed beyond 2:00. I give it a rating of 8 overall, because it would be nice to have a very crunchy channel with tons of gain. The clean channel alone gets a perfect 10. Try one out. It really is amazing. Metalheads should stick to the Triaxis, or MP-1, but look at the Egnater for soloing and clean tones.

This is 6 years old and works perfectly. No worries here. I just put in some new Sovtek preamp tubes, and they really sound great.

I met Bruce at NAMM this year, and he was very nice and informative. I was amazed with the modular amps he built. He is very easy to get hold of, because they answer their phones, unlike VHT.

I've been playing for 17 years and have used and toured with pretty much every high end amp you can imagine. This is not the be all, end all of preamps, but the clean channel makes you think so. This clean channel beats out every amp I've used including a CAE 3+SE preamp. If your looking for heavy tones, look elsewhere. Tone junkies will lust over the sounds in this preamp, because that is all it has, TONE.

This was a Rocktron production model- The features on this preamp are abundant. The only negative was the Volume master on the back. $ channels on this preamp range from Fender Twin clean, to an AC/DC/SRV type channel, and 2 higher gain Marshall type channels.

The Fender Twin channel is worth the price on this piece alone. very cool channel! I didn't care for the Higher gain Marshall type channels. it sounded very much like my Marshall JMP-1. Very compressed and lacking life. I tried the preamp for a day with a Gibson 2001 Standard 58 reissue.

Nice user group on the web! Egnater stops by too. very cool.

no way does this preamp even come close to the tone on my Bogner FISH. it's so much more organic and alive. Even though the Fender channel is pretty cool, I prefer the FISH Clean channel.

Made in 99 or 2000. This is my first tube preamp- I did a lot of research-and this was supposed to be the best at the time- it's very versatile- and I just can't tell you how many times a night I'm complimented on my sound/tone. I play classic rock, prog rock, jazz, funk/dance, fusion and also play in a Rush tribute band- and the ie4 sounds awesome for all of it. 4 channels, great midi channel switching(I use the ART controller with the 2 assignable rocker pedals), no f/x loop- (that option always sounds terrible when used anyway). I wish they had put the power switch on the front--AND the most important feature I wish they had done is in the design of the casing- the setting knobs are too exposed and don't have enough protection. I use the ie4 as my main preamp on all of my gigs. I run everything in stereo- noise suppressor(for hollowbody feedback)>vintage stompboxes>ie4>TC Gforce>EQ>VHT 2502 power amp>vintage marshall cabs

AWESOME SOUND!!!! I can get the guitar tones of Alex Lifeson to Allan Holdsworth and Eric Johnson (my favorites). No NOISE

Reliable so far- don't want to curse myself or anything. that damn VHT 2502 is the pest! It's broken down 3 times since it was new in 2000.

Nice people- dealt with them to get info on the ie4-

Playing 20 years- I would get another one if I lost it. Bruce Egnater is a guitar tone guru.

I compared the ie4 to many many amps- and this was just the MOST verstatile and best sounding overall. The new Marshall heads really dissapointed me- as well as the Mesa stuff (not enough versatility)

Silverface Rocktron model bought new in 2000. All tube 4 channels, 2 x 1/4" jacks footswitch switching, MIDI switching, separate gain, bass, mid, treble, presence and volume controls for each channel, master volume (rear, arrrgh!!!), front and rear input jack, stereo main exits, no fx loop (that may have been useful sometimes...), rear on/off button (why?!).
The look reminds me a lot the CAE 3+ that I know very well because some friends of mine have it. The main features required for this kind of gear are all there but I don't understand why not adding an fx loop as well.

I mostly play Fusion, 60/70 Rock, Jazz and R&B.
I use 4 guitars and they are: 1 Don Grosh Bent Top Custom, 1 customized Fender Stratocaster, 2 Custom built guitars (1 is a 335 and 1 is a Superstrat) made from Roberto Bertoni of Liutart Custom Shop. I run the IE4 into a Rocktron Replifex (sometimes a Lexicon Reflex may be added to the chain but only for home recording), a Peavey Classic 50/50 power amp, and a Fender 2x12 Vibroking cab with Celestion Vintage 30. The mike is a Shure 57. I also use a Vox 847 wha, customized for true bypass, and a Boss stereo volume pedal.
This is the point: why should I have bought this preamp instead of keeping using my good ol' Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp or buying another model like the Custom Audio 3+? Because I firmly believe that this preamp is absolutely the best that I've ever heard. And here are the reasons why:
CHANNEL 1 is Fenderish. It sounds very good for anything. There is a 3 ways switch that allows you to choose the brightness and that's very useful. You can go from funk to jazz sounds without touching the EQ (of course if this is properly set) just changing the position of the switch. The best thing would have been that you could have changed the brightness via footswitch or MIDI so that you could have had three clean channels in one.
CHANNEL 2 is called SRV and I guess that I should not say anything more than this if I said that the sound is worth the name (or the name is worth the sound?). Nevertheless you can go further than this and get a great crunch.
CHANNEL 3 is my actual reason of life. The entire Marshall history in one channel! Sweetness, big bottom end, dynamics, articulation, enough gain for going from blues until old metal school tones passing through fusion and classic rock. Absolutely the most incredible distorsion I ever heard, period.
CHANNEL 4 is more or less like channel 3 but with more gain, mids and less bottom end. I use this channel with the gain at noon and the mids rolled down at 10 so that I can obtain a creamy rockblues overdrive. I know this channel was conceived for modern rock purposes but, having already the above mentioned fabolous third channel, this could seem nearly unuseful. Anyway this preamp it's so well conceived that you can virtually have 2 or even three different awesome sounds from each of the 4 channels. This is why I'm not scared to change the EQ settings drastically from the ones that one could argue the channel should have.

In the first day I got it, it broke down!!! It was a faulty welding, nothing serious but I was very disappointed about the reliability of this piece of gear at first. Then I've been using it heavily for 3 years both for live gigs and home recording and I've never had a problem.

When it broke down I immediately wrote to Rocktron to have the diagrams and Jim at Rocktron's support department sent me them by fax within half an hour from my phone call. This is what support should be!

An owesome preamp. Personally, the best that I've ever tried.
If it was stolen I'd search for another one if I found it or became a preacher. I have tried the CAE3+ and I still owe the Mesa/Studio Preamp and they are two great preamps as well but I love more the sound of the IE4. It fits my needs perfectly.