I have played surf guitar since the 60s when I started playing guitar, and still lead a surfy/twangy heavily instrumental band. Surfybears are hot in the surf world, as exemplified on the surfguitar101 forum. I haven't played one at this point, but I know a bunch of people who do. And I think they're a good, well thought out product.
Myself, if I wanted a Fender 6G15, with all its great points as well as downsides, I'd get a 6G15 or tube clone. I've had maybe a half dozen originals and a couple of reissues over the years, and I have a ca. 65 original now. I can't see getting the Surfybear Classic, because it pretty much clones one of those with FETs instead of tubes. At $450, I'd get a clone or reissue. Even the reissues have gone up, but if one is patient, I think they're still obtainable at that general price level. Maybe not so easy online right now due to the pandemic, but once guitar shows come back, I think a grand for a reissue is gonna be hard to justify. Or a clone with a different name. I see 'em pretty routinely for reasonable money.
The main downsides of the original 6G15 circuit, in my opinion, are that you lose some clarity and gain for styles other than surf, and it's not true bypass. So I don't consider a 6G15 an all-around reverb unit. But for surf guitar - pretty much indispensable if you really want the classic surf guitar sound.
As far as the Surfybear Compact - it uses an 8-style short reverb tank. This is what's used in the Blues Junior, the old Fender Princeton Chorus, and similar amps. They're OK, but not the same as the Accutronics 4/9 style long tanks if what you want is the classic Fender reverb.
What looks most interesting is the Surfybear Metal. Long 4-style tank, true bypass when it's switched out of the circuit, a gain knob to recover some of the gain lost in the circuit, and it's a reasonably, but not super, compact floor pedal. And $100 cheaper than the Classic at $350US. Hits all the marks for me.
With all that said, I frequently use my Catalinbread Topanga which, as you know, is a normal Boss-sized digital reverb pedal. It resides permanently on my surf guitar pedalboard for gigs - I don't always drag the 6G15 out. I think it sounds really great - like a really good Fender on-board reverb and then some. Some of the surf guys say it doesn't 'drip' as much as a 6G15, but I think it can be dialed in pretty close, especially with a little bit of delay added. But I may spring for a SB Metal one of these days (pun intended).
If you wanna find out more about these and other reverb units, check out the surfguitar101 forum, and especially this thread -
https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/25376/ - but remember that these guys lean heavily to the surf guitar mindset.
