I gigged last saturday with my Deluxe Reverb and had it turned all the way up.
Sustained like Santana...and I was playing my Tele.
Compression sounds phoney and hokey.
The right size amp turned up sounds best to me.
Most of the time we bring to big of an amp to the gig and can't turn it up = no sustain.
Owning a variety of amps in power ranges of 18 to 50 watts (or more) can be a big, big help.
That's my suggestion for getting good sustain on the gig: the right size amp.