I tried it this evening with my Carvin amp (earlier it was with my Jet City set clean). Since I've been in Michigan I've had this weird thing with my Carvin, doubtless because of my new office. I either get high end that's a bit ice picky or it sounds a bit muddy. I can't seem to dial it in well. I found that the MXR really helps with that. It tames the very high end and smooths it out. It also seems to mellow out the clanginess of the built in reverb (honestly, I like my Polara's reverb better than the Carvin's spring tank). So clearly it is not "transparent" but that's just fine by me. I found that I needed to tweak the settings from what I had used with my Jet City. I'm guessing it's because that the Jet City has very little headroom and the Carvin has gobs of it.

I tried it with my Jackson as well. I think in the case of humbuckers that a little dab'll do ya. I needed to be more subtle than I was with the Tele. Since my Tele is my main clean guitar, it's all good.

So far, so good. Compression is a unique effect in that you CAN make it super obvious, but it's not like you always SHOULD. It's giving me what I'm looking for. I just need to tweak it a bit further to get it exactly where I want it. I haven't tried it as a boost yet, but that is definitely on the agenda.