Compadre Jewelry Magic

[berryman]

Most Tesoro afficinados seem to be of the opinion that the Compadre is the best jewelry detector that Tesoro has made. I always thought what made the Compadre special was that its 12Khz frequency was particularly sensitive to fine gold. However, I recently read a couple of posts saying that what makes it special its 12khz frequency coupled with its low gain circuitry. If true, the corollary would seem to be that Tesoro's newer high-gain detectors won't perform as well when it comes to finding jewelry - particularly fine gold. Thoughts?

 

[slingshot]

Monte's the man to answer this one-basically the high-gain low noise circuitry coupled with an ED-120 (a little higher than iron discrimination) can cause some targets to be missed under certain ground conditions. The Compadre and other older Tesoros with a true ED-180 discrimination have less problems detecting these objects.Of course, the catch is that most don't use discrimination levels that low and unless you're willing to dig a lot of trash you'll probably find the larger coin sized targets.

 

[Hotwire]

So 'theoretically', if you have a detector without any discriminating capability & don't mind digging everything you will find more?

 

[slingshot]

So 'theoretically', if you have a detector without any discriminating capability & don't mind digging everything you will find more?[/quote
that's why PI's are so popular. The other side of the story is that purists sometimes take all the fun out of the hobby by their informative(and they are ) posts because they leave one with the idea that you can't find valuables with "average" detectors. With "normal" ground in "normal" conditions a "normal" detector can find metal targets.

 

[Furious T]

Your question on the Compadre is a difficult one for me to answer, as I dont have a Compadre...when I read some of the posts relating to rings and jewellery found, I sometimes think that maybe I should get one, but so far, I haven't. As slingshot said, rings and fine jewellery can be found by most detectors from reputable manufacturers. There is more to it than the operating frequency and gain of a particular detector, although, in some areas under some conditions with some operators, these factors can come into play. Other factors that come into play are: the sites that are being detected; mineralisation of the soil being detected; the hardness of the ground and the detector operator's preparedness to dig; the amount of discrimination being used; whether the operator is detecting in discriminate mode or all metal mode; whether the detector being used is suitable for the conditions eg salt water; even the frame of mind of the operator can be significant.

From the posts I've seen, many of the areas detected with the Compadre seem to involve "tot lots". In these cases, extraction of the target is relatively easy, so a person might be more inclined to investigate every signal on the detector.....such areas are also conducive to the loss of personal items, including jewellery, toys etc.

From what I have read, there is little doubt that the Compadre will find goodies, and at a pretty good depth. Whether another detector in the hands of another operator would find the same goodies is possibly a question that we really cant answer.

 

[kloudking1]

I have found gold and silver jewelry, gobs of clad, and a silver dime with my 5.75 Compadre. Compadre rocks! Now I have a new 8" Compadre, and I'm hoping it performs as well as my former Compadre. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

 

[machineman]

The compadre is the first detector I ever bought. I had used some others before but not much. The Compadre found me most of my jewelry targets gold and silver. Here are the reasons I think the Compadre is so highly rated.
Its cheap. $160 new is a great price for what you get. It also means a lot of people hang on to them for a long time. This helps you really learn the machine.
Its light, so you can swing it for a long time.
It came with a fixed small coil. First the 7" and then the 5.75". (now comes with 8" also) This forced you to slow down and cover the ground. Most dedicated (non beach) jewelry hunters seem to use smaller coils.
Its relatively low power. This means you dont spend a lot of time looking for deep targets which are usually not jewlery. (not including beaches)
Its easy to learn. The language is simple, Good beep "Dig" scratchy/crappy beep "move on"
Only one knob means you dont waste a lot of time trying to to get is setup, and you are also not likely to mess it up. Turn it on and go.
Its fairly sensitive to small gold items at close range. I have found many earrings with mine. More than any other detector.
No VID, I have had and tried many VID machines over the years and found them all to be difficult to id gold. Gold jewelry covers such a huge range on the discrimination scale that you cant accurately id it via conductivity. I set my Compadres just past iron and dig almost everything.
This brings us to the most likely reason the compadre is awesome on jewelry. You dig almost everything. The real key to finding jewelry seems to be digging a lot of items. Put yourself in a likely spot and start digging.
What it comes down to is the Compadre is cheap and forces you to be a slow methodical hunter.

Good luck Love my Compadres

 

[kloudking1]

Machineman, what is your favorite Compadre? 8", 7", or 5.75?

 

[machineman]

I love the 5.75. I have had 5.75", 7",8",8x9",10x12dd", and clean sweep on a Compadre. I think Tesoro chose right with the 5.75 its great.

 

[kloudking1]

Tried out the 8" this evening. Seems to be picking up stuff very deep. I do find that I can't get quite as close to playground equipment as I could with the 5.75". I want to do a depth test against my AT Pro. I think this Compadre will be close to as deep! Maybe I can do it in the morning and video it.