The PRS is the easiest of the three to dial reverb for — and the trickiest to get wrong. The 59/09 humbuckers are overwound PAFs with Alnico 2 magnets — softer, sweeter, with natural compression that smooths pick attack. Mahogany body adds woody warmth and sustain. The result is a guitar that already sings on its own. The Big Sky's job here is the most subtle of the three: stay out of the way and let the guitar do its thing. Spring reverb. Short. Bright. Almost not there. Anything more and you smother what makes the PRS a PRS — that natural blooming sustain that doesn't need help. Anything less and the dry signal sounds disconnected from the wet amp.
Why Spring, bright, short for the PRS
Spring over Plate or Hall for one specific reason: the PRS already sustains. The 59/09s through mahogany have natural bloom — notes hang in the air on their own. A long Hall tail compounds that bloom into mush; a Plate's dense reflections fight the woody sustain. Spring is short, bright, and has the most defined reflection envelope of the three modes. It pings off the note attack and dies before it interferes with the note's own sustain. The result: notes ring out the way the PRS naturally rings, and the spring tail adds a vintage character that pairs beautifully with the dTape Timeline echoes.
Tone at 1 o'clock (bright) — this is the opposite of the Classic S setting. The PRS is inherently darker than the alder Suhr, so a warm reverb makes the wet amp sound muffled. A bright Spring restores top-end air without fighting the dry signal. Pre-delay 9 o'clock (~15 ms) — very short, because Spring's signature is the immediate tank ping right after the note. Longer pre-delay starts to sound like a separate event rather than a reverb on the note. Mod at 9 o'clock introduces just enough flutter to humanize the spring tank simulation without hearing it as a chorus.
The pairing of dTape Timeline + Spring Big Sky is the secret sauce here. Both are vintage analogue simulations. The tape echoes degrade naturally; the spring adds tank character. Together they sound like the PRS plugged into a vintage combo amp in a small studio, miked from across the room. That's the wet amp's job. The Badger handles the close-mic dry signal.