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.

Ugly Truth About Polara Reverb by DigiTech

I may or may not have told you before, but I'm not a great fan/user of reverb. I usually use a little bit of reverb, but just. I like to hear my guitar loud and clear, and too much reverb can make things mushy. So, when spending time at my local music store, my helpful pedal pusher set me up with two pedals. One was the Obscrua Altered Delay, and the Polara Reverb. I was looking for weird but useful sounds. He was sure that this combo would fit the bill. The Obscrua is reviewed here, now we are going to look at the Polara Reverb.

It's a Reverb

Generally considered a good thing, reverb is a very useful effect that many guitarist use in a "always on" type manor. I use a little bit of verb all the time. I own serval amps that all have analog reverb, so for me a pedal unit should create something special. I spend a considerable amount of time with this pedal. What I found was a really good reverb. That was about it. This pedal look psychedelic in the best way. It feels super solid and everything is really smooth. Besides a little bit of pedalboard candy, this pedal offers little more than the average reverb pedal.

There Are Better Options

In September Boss will release a updated version of their Digital Reverb. This update adds a lot of functionality and a few new features, which is more than I can say the the Polara. Digitech want to break into the boutique market, but there is one problem: they're Digitech. They have produced pedals on a mass scale for years. Just because you release a fancy looking pedal and charge a premium price for it doesn't mean it's boutique, and it doesn't mean that people will be willing to buy it.

Conclusion

If you have $150 to spend on a reverb and you have to maintain a certain atheistic on your pedalboard that doesn't include Boss pedals, buy you also want more functions than basic boutique stuff, then you might be the prime candidate for a Polara Reverb. I've seen tons of Demos and have had a lot of hands on time with this pedal and still looking forward to the Boss RV-6. If this pedal has an Expression input and 100% wet setting, then the looks would put it over the top, but considering that this will be topped next month, I'm waiting.