LesPaulopolis

Boosts are essential to my rig since keeping the gain down is key to nicely articulated, distorted chords.

I was using a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive ($129 new). Pretty sure it's a TS808 clone. This pedal is nice because it also has a "clean" blend knob which (you guessed it) blends the pedal tone with the non-effected clean tone. You can crank the clean and use it as a straight up volume boost too.

Well, the SD works great for boosting cleans/mildly distorted amps, but when I needed that extra sustain and body for heavily distorted solos it just wasn't cutting it. There wasn't enough "oomph."

Now I'm using a BOSS GE-7 (boosting mids and gain ever so slightly) as a solo booster. The EQ works great! Each channel gets an even (or proportional is one channel is set louder than the other) boost and a bit more bite+gain.

The SD is left "on" at all times these days (in place of the formerly "always on" EQ). Ideally, I'll get another EQ (MXR 10-band?) to leave permanently "on" as well. Then the rig should have versatility to the max!

Finally, I also use a chorus pedal if in need of "one more notch" of lead power.

So yeah, in all, EQ pedals are great boosters! A nice feature is that you can really dial in those frequencies you want for "your" solo tone. Also, you could attenuate frequencies (for your rhythm tone) and turn it OFF for solos (restoring the full frequency spectrum).

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'68 RI LP Custom
JCM900 + EQ & Boost