Digitech hasn't had a foot in the reverb pedal market since the rare and elusive PDS3000 Pedalverb back in the late eighties. While that pedal had loads of cool sounds and trippy features like infinite, reverse and gated verbs, it was plagued by excessive noise and an AC-only operation. After a long absence, Digitech is back in the game with a feature-packed reverb pedal from their amazing new X-Series lineup called the Digiverb.

While this new gadget doesn't boast the whopping 15 reverb modes of the PDS3000, the Digiverb certainly makes up for it with better sounds, tone shaping and a more compact housing. Three knobs take care of level, eq and decay duties while a clickable mode knob rotates between seven various reverb options. Other standard construction details of the X-Series can be found elsewhere on the site so please refer to that for a broad overview.

The Room setting can add a small dose of space to lackluster signals with its fast reflections and short decay. You'll find a lot of tonal control by employing the EQ knob. Nailing everything from the subdued sounds of a carpeted rehearsal space to a shrill tiled bathroom are all possible. The popular Plate reverb has a soft shimmer that should appeal to the more atmospherically inclined. It is, by far, the richest and most fluid reverb of the bunch and it's dreamy decay is absolutely stunning. For those looking to find a standard amplifier reverb sound, the Hall setting should be able to fit the bill. While wet settings sounded a bit disconnected from our signal, the more sensible knob placements showed off a nice sinewy snap that could certainly stand up or stand in for most amplifier reverbs.

The Church mode steps away from this small smokey club sound into a massive and endless cathedral. The reverb found here is a bit other-worldly and gives an added depth to cleanly strummed chords and plucked arpeggios. Its endless decay fills out sparse arrangements with a underlying bed of reverberated haze. For those who like adding a dose of reverb, but could do without having it consume their sound, the Gated setting can really come in handy. While mainly associated with sterile 80s snare sounds, the Gate can be quite useful for those strum-happy players among us. By keeping the reverb's decay under control by employing a threshold level, players can have their reverberated space without having it consume their sound in a muddy wash. At heavy mix settings the gate can also impart a very haunting reverse-like swoosh to leads and chord stabs.

Borrowing from our favorite feature on the PDS3000, the Digiverb adds a Reverse reverb mode that provides an exciting sonic excursion from all the other traditional reverb sounds. This feature goes a step further than the old PDS3000 by allowing the direct signal to be eliminated entirely making for pure reverse sounds and some serious noisemaking (This is something Digitech should have thought about when designing their Digidelay since the reverse function on that pedal doesn't allow for mixing out the original signal). Anyone looking for a heavy dose of psychedelia or just a little touch of the bizarre will find plenty of fun here.

Rounding out the modes is a surprisingly accurate spring reverb simulation complete with that watery droplet "ploink" sound! There is a nice vintage vibe that works at just about any setting. This should perk the interest of surf guitarists as well as rockabilly types. I won't say it has the depth and fluidity of a real spring reverb tank but its' character and spunk won't keep you from gigging with it.

With most multi-mode pedals, there always a few settings that demand your attention while the remainder usually suck. Not so with the Digiverb! In fact, we found ourselves fondly flicking through all seven modes over the course of our testing period. Each one has a unique voice that will find its' place in just about any style of music. We did have one huge complaint though! Well ok, its actually more of an omission really. One feature that we sorely missed from the old PDS3000 days was the infinite reverb option. Seems like this would have been an easy add-on considering the operation modes of many of the other X-series pedals. Like the loop mode on the previously reviewed Digidelay, we wished that the Digiverb pedal could be pressed and held to sustain the reverb for cool textures and drones. It's a small request but one that seems like a no-brainer from a technical standpoint. It make me wonder why companies like Digitech don't send out beta-pedals to clever people like us?

That gripe aside, the Digiverb is one amazing pedal. For the price, the pristine sound and the plethora of textural possibilities, you'd be silly to pass this one by when looking to add a little reverberation to your setup.