Boss RV-6 vs Digitech Polara

Two of the most recent and notable reverb units to hit the shelves of your favorite music store are: the Boss RV-6 Digital Reverb and Digitech's Polara. If this was a beauty contest, then it would be over before it starts. The Polara is a stunning pedal. Boss pedals have done little to improve there cases. But this isn't Miss America, this is a pedal shootout. 

The Digitech Polara

I like this pedal. It has got some huge sounds in the pretty little box. The controls are super easy to manipulate. Dark and moody is a great way to describe this pedal. Seven modes that let you choose from standard favorites and some new settings. Reverse, Halo, and Mod settings are a great addition the the typical palette of reverb colors. The Halo setting is fantastic. The Spring, Room, and Plate are spot-on. Everything sounds clear and the guitar signal is transparent. The toggle to turn trails on and off is a welcome feature. Switching is silent and soft. Signal remains uncolored when pedal is bypassed. This is a solid pedal with a lot of great features. Did I mention that it was pretty? It's, like, really pretty.

The Boss RV-6

Fresh off the presses from Boss is the RV-6 Reveb. No less than 8 mode of fantastic reverb. The Shimmer and Dynamic modes are awesome and work great. Plus this pedal can even add a little bit of Delay if need (adding back a much loved feature from previous models that was removed in the RV-5). This pedal sounds great. Every setting produces solid effects. The Tone knob helps to put the effect exactly where you want it. Dark to bright and everywhere in-between. You can even add an expression pedal to control the effects. This is a super sounding reverb in the familiar Boss brick shape. 

The Conclusion

Both of these pedal do great things. There is a lot of overlap. The Polara is a stand out pedal. People will notice the sounds and the looks of it. The Boss is a pedal jam-packed with great sounding effects and with expression capabilities. It's hard to choose between these two pedals because they both do a great job at producing reverb. But choose is exactly what we have to do. When the rubber meets the road, you have to go with unit that will be most useful in your playing situation. For me, It's the RV-6. The Reverse setting on the Polara is fun, but not very useful for me. The Dynamic mode of the RV-6 can come in handy when switching off the effect is not possible, or when I want to change setting in the middle of the song. Both pedals punch above their price tags, sounding just as good as pedals twice the price. If I had to choose, it the Boss RV-6.