so i just built the valvecaster ,love it but also luv switches . any suggestions?
I don't think you'll be able to do it without a bit of loss. There isn't a great deal of tone shaping in the Valvecaster so rather than bass and treble boost you'd add treble and bass cut. To do anything with mids you'd need to add either a notch filter (for scoop) or a bandpass filter (for perceived "boost"), both of which will involve a loss at certain frequencies.
I haven't used it myself, but the AMZ/Mark Hammer 'Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control' series is supposed to shape some tone without much volume loss. Passively as well.
http://www.muzique.com/lab/swtc.htm
Would there be any harm in just throwing in some tone shaping with an op amp booster afterwards to compensate for volume loss?
The EQ circuit section of the forum has a number of things that might work for you.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=21.0
Using switches would just be a matter of connecting a suitably valued resistor in series with a SPST switch.
I haven't used it myself, but the AMZ/Mark Hammer 'Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control' series is supposed to shape some tone without much volume loss. Passively as well.
http://www.muzique.com/lab/swtc.htm
Would there be any harm in just throwing in some tone shaping with an op amp booster afterwards to compensate for volume loss?
Harm...Puts a hole in your box?
Tone controls remove signal content, all the relevant frequencies add up to ''the volume'', removing/reducing any frequency bands works and reduces average signal voltage.
Try without the compensation for volume recovery since the happy byproduct of this recent circuit discovery [courtesy of Mark Hammer] is that it is low-loss.
A more aggressive tone control may prove more flexible [by losing more signal as frequency bands are turned down] creating greater need for a recovery stage.
The EQ circuit section of the forum has a number of things that might work for you.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=21.0Using switches would just be a matter of connecting a suitably valued resistor in series with a SPST switch.