Line6Perry... looks great! I will try this too.

I do what srspud said, except I use an expression pedal instead of a second effect box.  I have all my gain pedals in the same column and assigned an expression pedal to that column, I use it to increase the output and sometimes I also have it boost the gain a little.  The expression pedal I use is just a footswitch that I made with some parts I bought from pedalpartsplus.com after seeing a post on this board from someone else who made his own expression pedal.  He posted a pic of his and gave some good instructions on how to make it.  If you're interested I can look up the post, or send you pics of mine.  It's just a simple on/off style switch so you couldn't really use it for a wah or anything, but it works great if you're just looking for a boost.  In all I think the pedal parts ended up costing around $15 or so and it took about 20 mins to assemble.  You can get the parts at radio shack even, but I think their housings and switches are all plastic.  Mine is real solid.  Casing and switches look like an MXR type of pedal.  I love it.

Tube Comp at fairly low settings in front of  the tube drive/screamer/fuzz face etc... works really well.