I just realized I don't have any compressors. I need to fix that. Making note of the Wampler Ego, but I like opto-compressors, so will probably get the Carl Martin. Or something. Maybe the (EHX) Black Finger (tube) and/or White Finger (optical).
That said, it sounds like something funky was going on with your pick attack. I've had something similar, and what was happening is that there wasn't any headroom, so instead of compressing, it was distorting. Certainly fine when I wanted to add punch, but sounds like you didn't, so I think you made the right choice, but just wanted to warn you, in case you ran into the same thing again with another compressor. Les' comment about context is very important, you really have to watch what the compressed signal does to levels, especially amplifying the noise going into the compressor, and what the elevated signal might do to the amp (drive it into distortion when you wanted a clean signal).