Be clear what we're talking about.
Studio Compressors (rack-mounted) are complex and versatile pieces of kit, with a lot of controllable parameters. In the hands of a sound engineer they can transform an entire recording. In the UK Pultecs and Altecs were preferred, in the US the favourite was the UREI 1176.
Compression/Sustain
pedals are another thing altogether. They are made down to a price and offer little control over the parameters. The early ones such as Ross and MXR were simple and crude with few controls. They each have a distinctive (almost intrusive) sound but can be thought of as an instrument in their own right. The MXR in particular is an important ingredient of "Chicken Pickin' ".
Some guitarists owe their studio sound to compressors. Roger McGuinn (Byrds) got his famous "jangle" by using two studio compressors in
parallel -- one to increase the sustain of the higher frequencies. Lowell George (Little Feat) used two 1176s in
series to give almost infinite sustain when playing slide guitar. Both struggled to recreate their sound live: McGuinn had a Ross-type compressor built into his signature Ricky, and George used a couple of MXRs on his pedal-board.
Simon Keats of
Origin Effects in Buckinghamshire has spent years recreating the UREI 1176 studio quality compressor in simplified pedal format. His pedals are known as
Cali76 (parallel) or
SlideRig (series).
https://origineffects.com/product-category/compressors/ This is worth watching. The presenter, Jay LeonardJ, is a great demo guitarist -- if you can get past his excitable manner
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utd7PvDPPEIThe first part (Cali76 Compact Deluxe), from 2:45 on, gives an excellent demo of three ways you can use a compressor pedal (not necessarily a Cali76) to achieve a given sound. The second part (SlideRig Compact Deluxe), from 7:50 on, is about infinite sustain.
DaveC.