Cleaning up your signal chain+necessities?

Here's what I'm talking about:

1st opinion - Get rid of all of the 'crap' (pedals) going into your amp. Make it as simple as possible so you don't suck tone!

2nd opinion - Running into a boost pedal and a noise gate can really clean up your sound when recording!


I like the idea of getting rid of all of the unnecessary crap before you ultimately hit the amp, but I also kinda agree with the 2nd opinion as well. I'd really like to have a small boost to tighten things up, and maybe a noise gate if things are getting messy.


What do you think? Will a simple setup like a boost and a noise gate in front of your amp really suck THAT much tone from your guitar?

Why not get the best of both worlds, and use a pedal switcher that is true bypass and gives you the option to use either a buffered or non buffered input.