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''Compression'' reduces the dynamic range of a signal. In audio production, compression is often used to limit the peaks on transients, preventing them from clipping when increasing the volume of the master copy. For guitar playing, the main usage is similar, bringing the harsh, percussive spike in volume from the attack of a clean guitar tone so it is more in line with the sustain volume. For clean or mildly distorted guitar, it can be used to get longer sustain or thickness in the tone. It can be used to augment high-gain distortion, so that less distortion can be used without losing thickness - the tone gets clearer without losing saturation.
Placing it towards the end of the chain is simply going to level out the final volume a bit. This is useful to add sustain to the signal without altering the tone. You can use it to get palm mutes to sound more prominent when the distortion isn't fully saturated. It can also be useful to help the tone fit a mix better. Engineers typically use a compressor on the master bus to prevent strong peaks from clipping while boosting overall volume.
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[[Category:Gear]]