Welcome aboard. Do yourself a favor and skip the test garden for now. Freshly buried coins in disturbed soil give poor depth test results. I did a test garden when I first got my Silver uMax and was ready to toss it in the garbage. Then I went on the forums and whined and everybody filled me in and said just go hunting. You can waste hours reading on the ground matrix and how once disturbed it takes years to re-establish, but why?
For the money, in my opinion, the Silver uMax is the best buy out there for performance for not a lot of cash. I will also say that the F2 is a sleeper for the money. Like you I wanted a simple effective detector without out all the screens and menus, so I bought a Silver. I work on high tech electronics all day and when I go detecting I like simple and effective, and that is exactly what the Silver uMax is.
So the big question is how to start using this wonderful detector. There are two approaches and I have tried them both. The first approach is turn the disc. down real low and dig all good sounding targets. This way you will eventually learn differences in audio from trash to treasure. By doing this you are gonna dig a lot. This is how I started. At first I wondered if there was anything in the ground but pulltabs, bottle caps and the occasional penny. In my opinion method two is the way to start. Method two is turn the disc. up to just shy of penny and start hunting. This way you will experience success much sooner because essentially you are cherry picking. You will get all coins but nickels, and by the way most gold rings are in that nickel range. No sweat though, learn how to use the detector first and then you can chase gold later. Using method two I feel it is easier to learn the difference in audio subtleties between trash and coins.
When you get a target size it up. If it is coin size you will get audio only in a small sweet spot in the coil, about a coins size sweet spot at that. Check it from two directions. If it sounds sweet from two directions, start digging. If it is sweet from one direction and has broken audio/scratchy from the other direction (90 degrees from the first direction) it is probably trash that is not a round object. Dig it anyways to see. You need to learn the audio traits of your detector for different targets. This will be the key to your success and it will take some time. If the target sizes up bigger than a coin it is probably larger trash. Again dig it up just to see. This is how you go about really getting to learn your detector. No matter what detector you get you will need to go through this process to learn it.
Learn how to cut a neat recovery plug in the grass. Place any removed dirt from your plug hole on a drop cloth. Keep your holes small and neat. Leave no sign that you were there. A pin pointer is something you should get as soon as possible to keep your digging efforts neat and to a minimum. Digging clean holes is the most important thing you need to know.
Throw some coins on the ground and practice pin pointing and sizing targets up.
Most of all, have fun and enjoy your new detector. If you have any questions ask away and we will gladly help you.
Almost forgot- if you find anything worth more than $20 we require a small finders fee for all the advice we give you!
Also pay attention to what Tabman does and says, he is essential the Tesoro King. Learn hunting methods and advice from him, his success is not luck, but instead knowledge and experience.
You picked a great detector and like others have said the Tesoro Forum is fantastic! You will get swamped with advice and help.