Using a cheap EQ or compressor as solo boost

Does this work? If so what's the point of all the Fat Boosts and stuff like that?

Also, I'm picky about the non effected tone coming through the bypass. I've had decent luck with Arion stage tuners. Do those mini-Danelectros have a decent bypass. What about the newer DOD pedals?

Well, there are are a lot of variables to take into consideration - among them, headroom, circuitry, what is to be "boosted" (frequencies, dbs, or both), & whatever inherent tone lives in the box... sure, with a Boss GE-7 EQ, you can notch or boost frequencies, & you can increase volume - but if you boost the same treble frequencies on the GE-7 as you would with say, a Z.Vex SHO, & try to match the volume boost to the SHO - you should notice substantially more hiss with the GE-7. Using compressors as boosts very much depends on headroom - most of 'em don't have a lot to spare, including Dyna Comp, the Boss series, & even high end booteek models like the Blackbox Oxygen. The Menatone J.A.C. compressor has more headroom than most when used as a boost - but still, it mostly does what its circuitry is designed to do - compress.

I like using dedicated boosts for boosting - that's what they're designed to do. And there's a million choices there - what frequencies do you want to boost, or are you looking for a relatively flat / neutral / *transparent* boost? For *transparent* (anything introduced into the signal chain changes something - this term is used relatively, like "Class A"), I can only recommend the BJFE Baby Pink, the discontinued TC Electronic Line Booster, or for a box that combines boost AND OD flavors, the "TIM", as built by amp designer Paul Cochrane. There are boosts that are decidedly NOT transparent, but work well with particular types of amps. The Klon adds mids & compresses (beautiful sounding box, but doesn't work real well with amps that have a mid emphasis, in my opinion); Prescription Electronics Germ (fairly flat EQ, except that there is a bit of high end presence added, not unlike rolling off the volume at your guitar with a germanium fuzz - sounds wonderful with a Vox, awful with a SF/BF Fender, in my opinion), Fulltone Fat-Boost (adds low end girth & lower mids - never cared for it with electric guitars, love it for acoustic-electrics, too hi-fi with electrics for my taste), MXR Micro Amp (fairly neutral, great bang for the buck, not a huge db boost). If you play Voxes or Marshall Bluesbreakers, there's dedicated treble boosters... all depends on what you want to hear...