Anyone Modded thier ie4 preamp?

I have an early 90's silver face egnater ie4. I am interested in seeing what mods people have done on this pre. I would really like to get the clean channel tighter and more fender like. It seems to lack punch. I have tried many different tubes will only slightly different affect.

The former owner of mine "apparently" had Bruce mod it. Looks like a simple cap-swapping switch in the tone stack to cut mids. a "modern" switch if you will.

It always sounds better in "standard mode".

I'm pretty sure Bruce E. and Dave F. worked on the IE4 until it literally sounded perfect to them.

I wouldn't mod an original, if I were you.

rosssurf - I'm surprised to hear your IE-4 lacks punch. I also have a silver-face IE-4 (pre-rocktron) and for me, Ch 1 and Ch 2 are my favorite clean tones out of all the Egnater amps, which also include a MICA 100 and an M4 preamp. I think Ch 3/4 on the MICA are better than 3/4 on my IE-4 though...MICA is a bit more old-school Marshall. On my IE-4, Ch 1 and 2 are plenty tight and Fendery. I think the T channel in my T/D is really a little bit too scooped in the mids...not enough beef for me. What are you using for a power amp and speaker cab? I'm running the IE-4 through a Randall RT 2/50 into either a TM 212 or the Randall MTS 212. I recall Dave Friedman saying he and Bruce tweaked the IE-4 using Chinese 12AX7's, so you might start there with tubes. I agree with GuitarSlinger about not modding it...it should sound killer as is. Overall, I feel like the IE-4 is just more dynamic and amp-like than my M4.

Thanks for the info beagle. I am using various guitars strats, les pauls and McCartys in to the ie4. It has an old telefunken in V1 and a few Tun-Sol's here and there. from there it goes into a rocktron Intellifex into a VHT 2/50/2 w Kt77's on one side and =C='s on the other into a Bogner 4x12 with V30's and Classic lead 80's in an x pattern. I can't imagine that chinese tubes would make that much difference. I wil dig some up and try them though. i wish someone was nearby with a similar rig so i could A/B it.

bump for and old post