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At least if you’ve already learned to control your dynamics with your picking or your guitar volume knob...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
In recording situations, studio compression sounds better.
I only use one very much as an effect - in other words - you can tell it’s ‘definitely’ doing something to the sound.
I've found a compressor massively useful for slide, country, rockabilly etc
Never needed one with drive.
Likewise for slide it's good to have a bit of punch as sustain can be a bit "challenging"
1) I have it on when I want to rapidly change between clean chord rhythm and clean single note picking lines. It helps the single note lines pop out and I don't have to continually ride the volume pot, or have to rapidly switch a clean boost in and out
2) The compressor is pre my OD/distortion pedals. I sometimes switch it in to give more sustain, especially for extended legato lines. It also fattens and smooths the distorted tone a bit, but at the expense of picking dynamics (which is OK for legato).
3) Also, following on from (2), if I want to use controlled feedback on a note and it's starting to die too quickly, I switch in the compressor.
These days it's all done within my Helix LT, which I use in stompbox mode.
So, a compressor meant I still had the twang of the strat but that it hung with the humbucker guitar in terms of volume and sustain. If my playing was busier it probably wouldn't matter, but since I often play quite open, sparse parts it helped hold the notes and hanging chords where I needed them to be.
The thing about a compressor is that since it controls volume, it doesn't really make sense until you've got something to be too loud or quiet relative to - so I only think it comes into its own when you're playing along in an ensemble, if you need one at all.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
1. Beefs up tone as mentioned above. (Clean or Dirty).
2. Clean Boost - set the output level higher.
3. More sustain without increasing the overdrive gain ie a low gain tone but with higher gain sustain.
Without the blend control, I doubt I'd use it anywhere near as much.
if you want consistent attack-vol-sustain and you feel your touch doesn't deliver that, they they may help you achieve that in an artifical way. and they can work in interesting ways with some effects that like a consistent attack dynamic of a particular instensity. but generally i avoid.
the only way you'll really know one is if you try one for a while and you get on with it.
you can pick up a very decent joyo compressor (joyo jf-10 Compressor = mxr dyna-comp clone) for less than £20, and if you don't like it flip it and lose practically nothing. so try.