Always-on clean boost pedal as a buffer?

I just got a new amp, and it sounds 100% magical playing direct in with nothing but a cable between my guitar's pickups and the amp input. Sparkling highs, good overdrive, it's great. Then when I plugged into my rig, the amp lost considerable volume and flavor. I could compensate for volume with the volume, gain, and EQ controls, but I can't really attain the same sparkle the amp has direct in.

The way I have my rig set up, most of my pedals are in a loop-switcher, and stay out of the signal path until I want them in. With the loop switcher on bypass, the signal has to go through a 21 foot cable (or wireless transmitter to receiver into a cheap 6-inch cable), then into a Morley ABC pedal that I use as an input selector, through another cheap 6 inch cable, into an Ernie Ball VP Jr., then through a good quality 1 foot cable into the loop switcher, and from the loop switcher "out" the signal travels through a good quality 1.5 foot cable to a Line 6 M13, and from the M13 "out" it goes through another good quality 1.5 foot cable into a loopmaster AB/Y, and lastly through a semi-cheap 6 foot cable to my amp input.

Long story short, that's 31 feet of varying quality cable plus pedal internals. I'm thinking a buffer would help my capacitance problem, because either the Morley ABC and Line 6 M13 don't have buffers (I think they pass signal even when they don't have power, but I can't remember 100%) or the buffers they have aren't good enough for my situation. I do have a Keeley Katana clean boost pedal that I rarely use since I learned to play with decent dynamics and work the volume knob on my guitar. If I put the Katana between the Morley ABC and the Ernie Ball VP Jr and left it on, would it boost the current like a dedicated buffer pedal would? I would think yes, but I wanted to double check with some people who know what they're talking about a little more than I do, I've never worried about cable capacitance or buffers before.

Thanks

-Jim

What you have described is generally the reason to try a buffer in the front of your chain. Remember that the output of practically any pedal has low output impedance, same as a buffer. Therefore, if you don't detect any 'life' returning to your signal when the first pedal in your chain is ON, you may be seeing cumulative effects of the rest of your system (cables, jack contacts, switch contacts, tone sucking pedals).
The course of action then would be to build your chain one pedal at a time and listen to when things go south.
If you find that a buffer is you answer, try using a TU-2 (tuner) as your first pedal. Its output buffer can drive a looper chain of pedals with true bypass nicely.

Visual Sound have an amazing buffer in their pedals.

Pull the VP Jr. out of there and see what happens. I don't know that you need a buffer as bad as you need a better volume pedal. A buffer might not hurt, but the volume pedal is a serious tone sucker.

I'd love to be proved wrong, but I have my doubts.

That said, if the VP isn't your issue, the tuner-first idea is a good way to get a buffer. Or you could be cool like me and put a Klon first!

Another one to use as a simple boost/buffer is the Graphic EQ pedal.

A 20-ft cable will drop the signal compared to a 6-ft one, most noticeable on the treble. A 6-ft stage lead being perfectly useless, just turn the amp treble up.
Once past the first pedal with a buffer amp in it then the signal is buffered and can be driven 100-ft or more without problem. Let the first pedal(s) in the chain have a buffer in them, you just need to find one that is not a tone-sucker.
A Graphic EQ set to unity gain, perhaps compensating for the treble drop in the long cable, is de-facto a buffer amp.