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Advantage or GT

D

Desert_Rat

New member
Hi all,

I'm wanting to get a new/newer detector for coins and light relic hunting. I am now so confused, there are so many options on which is best. First off I want depth then good discrimination. I like the GT but everyone says its to hard to use and its slow. Plus people have said its mostly for the beach. The Musky also looks good for depth, but it seems to be just a basic detector. Do I have to GB it every time? Then there is the X-Terra, I'm not a fan of displays. But would consider it, if its a deep.

Can someone help with the confusion and send me back on the path to a deep coin shooter / Relic hunter.

Thanks,

Kelley
 
you would be best off doing a search here on the forum about both machines so you have more info and can make an educated decision. it all depends what you want to do with a detector. i have a sov gt and am delighted with it. it's not difficult to use in my opinion, i learned it pretty quickly . i'm not a pro with it yet, but understand it enough to have fun and get the keepers. it took me some reading and experimenting and persistence, but all in all after a few trips i was already getting confident with it. if you are really into this hobby then that means you are willing to put in the effort to understand the machine, you will have to do that no matter which detector you choose. i haven't used the musky, so i cannot comment, i am also not a fan of the displays and all such extras, the gt will tell you all you need to know, with the multitones, am options etc. sov is a multifrequency machine, very stable in almost all conditions. that is one of the reasons many people love it for the beach, it's not affected by the difficult conditions of wet salty environment. but that does not mean it's a beach-only machine, it's great for everything, even gold prospecting every now and then, due to ground tracking in the am mode. as you can see i'm a fan of the sov :) it sure has the depth, discrimination, great all metal mode. do the search and you will find many people cannot get enough of the gt. from what i know the musky is not in the same league , although many people swear by it and i'm sure it will find you many keepers as well. it all boils down to what you want to have in your detector, if you only want to go detect a few times per year or so, then maybe there's no point in getting a detector like the sov, a simpler machine will do. on the other hand if you are serious about metal hunting, you cannot go wrong with the sov imho. but do not take my word for it, do the search, compare the options and opinions and choose the best option that suits your needs. good luck !
 
Thanks for the response. There is where I am getting confused, I keep reading and reading the forums.

I have never owned or used a Minelab. I started with an Compass Judge back in the 80's. I have no problem learning a new machine to get it tuned just right. First and for most is the Depth. I want the deepest detector I can afford, even if its not a Minelab. But I hear Minelab is the way to go... I hunt 80% of the time for Coins and 20% for Relics around ghost towns and mining camps. So I am around highly mineralized soil and nails all the time.
 
The GT is plenty deep. I've dug coins in the 11 to 12 inch range. It's also a slow hunter. Which I think is good. It will handle a few nails but the sensitivity may have to be reduced. Picking coins out of a carpet of nails is a tall order for any detector especially if the coins are deeper. I would use a tesoro for this. Detectors are like fishing rods each one excels in the right situation. I've never owned an advantage but from what I've read it's not real good in a lot of iron but it's deep also. Most if the time when you increase depth you will also increase sensitivity to iron and aluminum trash and cause masking.
 
I have used both the Sovereign and Advantage.For coin hunting I prefer the Sovereign hands down.The Sovereign with a meter and tones gives a lot more information than the Advantage.The Sovereign has much better depth than the Advantage,to back my point there was a depth comparison in the UK with most major detectors.The Sovereign was second right behind the Explorer in depth and the Advantage in the middle of the pack of other detectors..The Advantage is a nice beep and go which will require a lot more work when coin hunting.In the Field the Sovereign would be my choice of over the Advantage.As far as beep and gos I thought the 1236X2 was a better unit,which I found Silver dimes missed by the Advantage.Bottom line the Sovereign is more comparable to an Explorer than an Advantage.The hunters who want to compare these two detectors I would like to have a three hour hunt in a neutral park and show them the big difference in performance.Later Ron
 
Desert rat, i feel your frustration.I bought the Musketeer,Sovereign and Tesoro Vaquero at the same time.I must admit the sovereign is fun to operate,with the multi-tone output.But you must look this detector and the Musketeer are DD coil detectors, i could only find one aftermarket concentric 8" coil for the Sov.Concentric coils are nice in certain situations.And for the Musketeer which i found to be a deeper seeking detector than the Sov probably due to the fact that the musky has ground balance for all metal mode and discriminate mode,the musky is not a detector to take to lightly,but remember this is a strictly DD coil detector,there are no concentric coils to be found for this detector.I myself prefer the musky over the Sov due to the slight edge the Musky has on depth.And if you do like a deep seeking detector then you will want a detector with manual ground balance control.This is a proven fact that a detector with a manual ground balance will get the extra depth over a detector with a preset ground balance.Setting and checking ground balance is very easy!.You also should note the Sov and the Musky are very heavy detectors but also there are four way's to mount both of these,front under shaft,rear shaft behind arm,and my favorite,hip and chest mount.Good luck with your search for the metal detector that you like.Chuck.
 
The Sovereign is one of the best coin detectors out there and hard to beat for those that get to know this detector. Depth has amazed many as it did myself with coins over 12 inches deep with a 8 inch coil. Separation is also very good plus getting coins close to iron when you spend the time to get to know this detector. The Advantage is also a good detector, but does love iron and when in with those old crown caps where many of the older coins are found it is almost impossible to use plus you only have a one tone detector. The Sovereign with the multi tones you can hear what each target conductivity is and even without a meter you can learn what to dig and what not too. The Sovereign hate iron and speed so it has to be swung a little slower and for the real deep targets even slower. To begin with most don't like the Sovereign as it is giving you a lot of info as they are used to a beep and dig detector while the Sovereign is giving much more info, but once learned it is money music to many of us. Some don't have the patience to understand the Sovereign and sell them while others will take the time to learn them and are richly rewarded with some nice older coins and gold from areas that have been considered worked out. If I am going to do a Private yard I want the most accurate ID detector and yet decent depth without digging all the trash I will grab the GT with the 180 meter and my S-1 probe every time. I also have a E-Trac which I do like too, but for me it is a great detector too and feel it can even find more, but for the best ID, easy to use once you know it the GT is hard to beat.

The Advantage is a very sensitive detector and a great buy for the money, but does love iron and with the single tone you will dig more trash in parks than with the Sovereigns. Seen some places where my Advantage would only chatter being so much trash while the Sovereign nulled a lot and had to go slow, but was able to pick out the coins in witht he trash. One other thing is the Sovereign do not need to be ground balance as it uses a different way to take care of the ground verses other detectors is why it make a excellent beach detector a long with the Excalibur which is a water proof Sovereign.

If I was hunting for relic and where interested in iron targets the Advantage would be one I would be using, but if i was going to be looking for coins and jewelry in park, ball fields, schools and beaches where there is a lot of modern trash the GT would be the one I would use.

Rick
 
I prefer the Advantage for land use but though it works on the dry sand it can't compete with the GT on the wet beach.

On my bad ground either the original Musky or the Advantage has the edge on depth and can be worked faster leading to more finds. The newer Advantage has the edge over the Musky but both are good machines and I would be happy with either. They have always been the sleepers in the Minelab range.

You have the option of setting the ground balance for extreme conditions but there's also an auto setting which works better than that on many other machines. The other plus over most other detectors is that the drop off in depth on none ferrous as the discrimination is increased is slight.

Though you can increase the discrimination as I mentioned, for the best depth while hunting relics set discrimination at the zero. There's a small degree of iron rejection that allows you to I.D. nails without digging them , then feel the size and shape with the nice tight target response of the detector.
 
If you want depth try a Nautilus DMC 2B. That is my main relic detector. It will dig buttons 18" deep with a 10" loop in good soil and has good target seperation in iron. The Advantage will max out at about 11" on buttons and coins. The Soveriegn may be a little deeper than the Advantage but if there are any nails or iron around the good targets the Advantage will beat the pants off the Soveriegn. I would go with the Advantage over the Sovereign unless I planned on hunting Saltwater beaches. For Relics its also hard to beat a Tesoro Tejon or a Teknetics T2 (Both of these have excellent depth {"14"-15" on buttons} and both of these are extremely effective in iron infested sites.
 
Man I don't want to start a detector good vs bad discussion but, a lot of people who have owned a sovereign never learned how to hunt with it. I've never used an advantage and would like to try one someday. But if it's deeper than the sovereign I don't know if I want to dig that deep. The key to the sov is a sloow sweep and to listen to the change in threshold. Many people are looking for the classic signal. The sovereign is geared toward the Faint signal. I other words the head bangers disappears quickly but the faint signal continues deep. Many people overlook these or never recognize these because they're looking for the classic signal. I've dug pennies a foot deep. That's my limit, unless it's in an area where I might find an Indian head. The sovereign is not for everybody but I think it's number 1 in the multi frequency detectors if you're willing to spend some serious hunt time with it.
 
I like the tejon also. I've never tried a Nautilus DMC 2B it looks heavy. I don't know if I could handle it. But the Tejon is a winner in both categories
 
Say i will bear testimoney, on the depth of the musketeer 11" max on coins and thats a very faint signal but coming from a detector that cant get past 6" on coins I,m very happy but to be honest it sounds like the GT is a bit deeper would love to try one
 
On your hunting style and the sites you hunt. Both are great detectors. As far as tone ID, if your looking for jewelry along with coins you need to dig everything anyway from foil up to coins so tone ID has no advantage over a single tone detector. If your just looking for coins a detector with tone ID, meter or notch would be a better pick. I'm a big fan of the Sovereigns and the Musky's and each has it strong points. For deep coin hunting in parks, cherry picking for silver, selective digging or beach hunting the Sovereign would be the better choice. For trashy iron infested ghost town hunting the Advantage would be far, far better with it's super fast recovery speed, excellent iron discrimination and above average depth on targets close to trash. I see where one poster said the Advantage loves iron. I disagree, they hate iron and it's very rare that I dig any iron. Yes it does chirp in the iron but that is a good thing if you know anything about target masking. I'm not taking anything away from the Sovereigns as I've used them through the years (I just picked up another one) and I have found some of my deepest coins with them but there are better machines out there for hunting in iron, the Musky being one of them.
 
Crazyman,Both the Advantage and Musky I used in my local parks had too much of an appetite for rusted bottle caps.You could spend a life time digging old rusted bottle caps in my area.These old parks in Michigan have layers of trash and the Sovereign works well here.Like Rick said relic hunting may be more suited for the beep and gos Fisher 1270 or Advantage would be my choice.
.
 
The 1880 half dime a depth of about 8 inches found at a trash laden inner city park.The other two guys metal detectors couldn't see the half dime.Some of these dimes were found 12 inch plus with a 10 inch Tornado coil.
 
Ron, maybe the difference in our ground has something to do with it. The Advantage has no problems with discrimination when it comes to nails and most large iron. Like I said I rarely dig any iron. Old rusty bottle caps because of their round shape will often give a signal on most machines but most of the time with the Advantage they have a real raspy tone to them easily different than the smooth sound of a good target. To make sure I always whip the coil very fast back and forth over the target and if it's a rusty cap the audio will start breaking up so they haven't been a big problem for me at least.
 
I have the same problem as Ron does on the rusty bottle caps and even swinging the coil faster it still give the classic coin signal. Now when I had the Shadow X5 swinging the coil faster was the way to tell the difference and it worked better than any other one by swinging the coil faster, best non metered detector I have ever used in my 36 years of detecting.. The Tesoro Tejon was also a excellent detector and it didnt disc as well when swinging the coil faster, but it too worked real good and by far the best Tesoro made. I tried the Advantage in several area and all I would get it those rusty bottle caps and some nails which you could tell most of the time by swinging the coil faster, but what really did it in was a very old park that coins are deep as we get them with the Sovereign and the Explorers and just had to take the Advantage to it and it chattered so bad and falsed that I couldnt even use it there and max depth was less than 3 inches on a new penny. Tried everything with it and it just wouldnt work at this site while the Sovereigns and Explorers were getting coins deep (one barber quarter a 14 inches measured using my S-1 probe as a guide)
I am glad it is working for you as it is a great detector for the price it is and it has power with maybe more than it needs and some do well with it. For relic hunting it is great where you want to find some iron, but being a coin and jewelry hunter it didnt work out for me like the Sovereigns do or the Explorer/E trac do.
 
Rick, are you sure you didn't have a faulty detector or coil? We have some really nasty ground and beaches up here in Western Washington and the Advantage does really well as far as depth and discrimination. Of course you don't have to sell me on the merits of the Sovereigns. You sold me on them years ago and I bought my first Sovereign from you some years back. I've been using them since then except the last couple of years but I remedied that and have a Sovereign Elite coming this week.
 
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