Xotic EP Booster

It has much more boost capability than the original Clinch FX (i own one). I actually like it better than the Clinch as far as it's tone shaping. I have never done an A/B with an EP-3, but my understanding is that the Clinch might be closer to that sound.

It isn't an overdrive and therefore has no gain at all. It will drive your amp harder as you increase the boost…this will also make it louder.

Thanks for the info people Tricky choice to make as I can only really afford to have one pedal...sell the OD, and get the EP booster to use with my Hot Rod Deluxe's drive channel instead to enhance the tone rather than boosting the output (something a lot of people seem to do), or keep using the OD...of course it would be great to use both pedals ideally as the Hot Rod Deluxe's drive channel isn't the best out there 

It depends on what kind of sound you're going for. If you play with Marshall type gain more, maybe you should look into getting an amp that has that sound. The EP Booster can polish a turd (excuse the phrase) but it's still better if you have an amp that already has the sound you want and the EPB will just make it better.

As for the drive channel, I didn't like the HRD's that much. I like the drive I get from pedals better.

If this were my decision, I wouldn't get the EP Booster alone if I didn't like the sound my amp was making. Ideally, I can get clean to mean with my amp and guitar's volume knob and just kick in the EP Boost for the extra push or leave the EP Boost on and play with the guitar volume knob. If I had to keep the HRD, I would still stick it out with an overdrive pedal. my 2 and a half cents.

wow what perfect timing for me to chime on this. 
I went to a buddy's studio this evening and jam'ed on a variety of pedals/amp/guitars. (he has A LOT of toys)
He had an EP booster and was having me listen to a variety of pedal configs to get my take.  He's trying to dial in a good tone with his pedals running into a Twin because his band has been doing a lot of festivals and is having to use backline Twins on a lot of gigs.
This was my first time ever messing with an EP booster and we messed with it A LOT.
For singing leads/aggressive power chords we were screwing around with a Wampler Pinnacle Dist. Deluxe pedal (great EVH "brown" tone.  Really cool for leads!) and comparing it to a MI Crunch Box
We were also A/B'ing a Barber LTD SR and a Xotic AC Booster looking for the right medium gain crunchy rhythm sound.
Long story short on both my PRS CU22 w/ Lollar PAF's and his mod'ed strat with a burstbucker pro humbucker in the bridge, the Pinnacle was by the far the winner and for the lower gain stuff it was a toss up.  Both were cool in their own way with subtle differences
........All that is well and good, BUT we really got cooking when started experimenting with the EP Booster!!!
Once we got the other pedals dialed something fierce, we started A'B'ing the EP Booster and a Lizard Legs flying dragon clean boost on top to hear the differences.  The Lizard Leg stuff is really good at doing what its designed to do which is pure clean boost without ANY added tone/drive/character so thats always good to have on board, but the EP Booster was just so cool in a subtly huge kinda way.  Its adds balls and clarity in a very interesting kinda way.  Its different than any other fattening boost type effect I've ever heard.  It adds bigness and thickness to the tone but is able to do it in a really clean shimmery kinda way.  We also experimented with the inner DIP switches which allow you to engage/disengage a bass boost and engage/disengage a bright switch which gives you a variety of colors and textures to choose from.  Really useful for catering the pedal to your specific guitar i.e. taming the highness and fattening the sound of a single coil by using the bass boost and possibly disengaging the bright switch, or brightening a dark LP style guitar.  None of the features change the sound in a dramatic way so you really cant go wrong.  You basically CAN'T make the pedal sound bad. 
I really liked it a ton and so did he. 
We also messed around with all of this stuff ran into his Bogner Shiva 112 combo (one of the older models).  The Shiva is his main amp.  He uses a one or two of the newer ones live when he doesn't have to deal with backline.  We ran stuff into the clean channel and into the gain channel.  Used some verb from the amp and a carbon copy delay in front of the amp and messed around with the delay in the FX loop.....Again, same story, regardless of how everything else was setup and sounding, the EP booster always added a bit of extra mojo and never got in the way.

The only thing thats a little weird is the way the boost knob works.  Even turned all the way down, its still a boost to the signal and it goes up from there in a not-so-linear kinda way.  It never gets too loud even turn all the way up and it even at zero on the dial, its still a boost.  Thats a little strange at first, but it doesn't really matter so much given the way in which this pedal works, and as per Xotic's website as of July 2011 the pedals come with an internal DIP switch that allows you have "true unity gain" in the way the knob works.   I promise though, don't let that stop you from picking one up.  New DIP switch or not, you just aint gone' find a bad sound with this pedal

Yeah its long and detailed I know! Thats just how I am when it comes to talking about tone.  Especially a product I really dig.  I like to talk about gear and give opinions on products I've tried out.  Unfortunately 95% of the pedals, amps, and accessories us gearheads talk about are from smaller companies and we can't run down to the local guitar shop and try them out, or they might be manufactured under a big company like Dunlap, but still aren't hardly ever actually kept in stock for us to check out.  So since many times we have to buy gear without hearing stuff in person-relying heavily on demo vids/audio, reviews, and recommendations-I try to be very thorough describing any product I might have insight on. 

I like good tones.  R Ford, JB, EJ, SRV, Clapton, Page, .....etc.   I'm not big on any weird wacky "out there" sounds.  The EP Booster is cool for any of those style tones on any type guitar on any amp type and beyond. 
And huge bonus.....ITS TINY!!  Takes up very little pedal board real estate.

Did you ever get an EP?  I got one a few weeks ago......and I officially can't live without it now!!

No it doesn't...