Minelab Sovereign Models Original to the GT

[Ron from Michigan]

Rick's Advice for the Sovereign "The Sovereigns are a different type of detectors and not like anything most have ever used.These do take some time to get use to and the biggest tip I can give DON'T GIVE UP.These detectors with different tones,nulling may confuse many to begin with and see finds that will make many a believer the Sovereign may be if not the best detecter you have ever used.With the Sovereign you can never go to slow,but you can go to fast and miss a lot of good targets that are deep or close to a thrash item.Most find running no disc or very little will get you less nulling and you can hear everything there is other than iron which is disc out with the Sovereigns and will null when it sees iron.The speed depends on where you are hunting as you don't want to go as slow in a park that has only surface targets,but want to go slower in an area where you know holds deep targets or where there is a lot of thrash as it has to see every target.I find in most areas I want to hear the threshold coming and going and changing tones.If this is doing this in most areas I know it is working good as it is seeing what I want.Now if the area is old and could hold deeper targets I will want to go even slower than normal in some of the area where I know will be deeper targets,such as around some of the bigger and older trees in a park where people sat many years ago and lost coins.You want to go very slow and listen close to that threshold changing and wiggle the coil over any signal a couple of times to see if you can get the tones to pitch higher and numbers climb,you may not be able to get the correct tones or numbers,but they will be trying to climb and not lock on.These I will check out as they could be so deep the Sovereign sees them,but being so deep can not get a good signal to ID them.Like I say when doing the wiggle they will be trying to climb,but they may not make it.If they lock on to a number nice then that is the ID of the target,but if they can't quite lock on and want to climb is the ones I'm talking about.With the Sovereigns you have to go slow normally and going for the deep ones at the fringe of detection is where going super slow will make a difference.I learned some of this by accident when I was forced to stand in one spot on the back side of a tree as some young people wrer playing frisbee golf and I was in their way.I was moving the coil every so slightly and hear the threshold change tones indicating it was seeing something.I did wiggle and seen the numbers bouncing around and the best I could get was up to a 165 on my180 meter,but I could see it was trying to climb along with the tones.I dug down a good 8-10 inches and with the help of the Sun Ray S-1 probe(best investment for the Sovereign)I found a deep wheatie.I went around that tree real slow after that and dug 3 more older wheaties,a merc a IH penny and a gold plated heart with not one of these giving the correct meter reading,but they were trying.Up until then I had only found new coins and some thrash,after that I dug many of older coins from 8-12 inches and less than 10% readlike they should have,but theyall were Signals that were trying to climb,but just couldn't make it.This is why I say go very slow in those areas you feel has some very deep targets in.It also help that others have worked these areas hard and took out all the surface targets so I don't have to listen to all the loud signals and can hear the deep and weak ones easier.Now another tip I can offer is some of those iffy targets you can't tell are good or bad.I will try to get the target to the tip of the coil by moving the back to me with the short side to side until I lose it,then move the coil forward until I get the target.Now I will know about right where it is so I will come at it from a different angle and see if is there or moved.I may come from adifferent angle all the way around and find if I can only see it one way it is probably a false off of iron,but if I can get it several ways I will be digging.Now I go to all metal pinpoint and pinpoint it doing the 90 degrees turn as I find on the deeper targets this works great plus to do my test to see if it is good I have to have the target centered right on.I will switch to pin point and go side to side and center the target,but don't go forward to back,just side to side.Now when you have the target centered I push the coil to the ground so it will not move off that spot and turn 90 degrees and then swing the coil side to side again until you have it centered,but make sure you don't go forwards or backwards with the coil.Now you have the target right under the center of the coiland if it was a iffy one because it was deeper and want to get a better ID I will hold the coil very still and switch back to disc mode,now once this is done I will wiggle the coil ever so slightly,if it nulls its thrash,if it is a positive signal trying to climb I will be digging and even if the threshold don't change I will wiggle a little more and chance is it won't null so you want to dig this one to make sure.I found with the GT it is harder to do this for some reason as I get a null first,but by wiggling it a little more it will ID it.I also find that the GT seems to be more sensitive and will false on iron more,but by coming at the target from a different angle it is easy to tell it is iron as it will move or null.Now the next tip is with using the S-1 probe of Sun Rays finding the deeper targets.Once you know your Sovereign and have used it a bit you can tell the depth just the way it acts and sounds like in more cases than a depth meter will.When I get the deeper signals and some that are more iffy I will do my pinpointing using the 90 degree turn and dig my plug as I know it is deeper and while in the all metal pinpoint I will switch to the probe and stick the probe in the hole trying to find any kind of signal,when I do and dig close enough to the target to get a good signal and then I will switch back to disc and see if it will null,or if it is a good target.If it nulls I know it is iron and will try to see if I can find another signal or I will take out the iron and try again.This has helped finding those targets that are close to nails and other thrash.It is nice to have this probe as most of the time I can get the nice signal of a good target and even some of the iffy ones trying to climb I dig I can see once I'm close to it if it is a good target by the tones I get.The S-1 probe has really help me find those deeper than normal targets,those at an angle.I find more since I use this probe,know right where todig and not put a big scratch across the coin. This is some of the tips I have to offer at this time and I am sure I know of more and think of them when I am out detecting.One thing is always be willing to learn with the Sovereign as it seems like most every time out you learn something else.As you will see from the forums that most that have stuck with the Sovereign and learned it well may try other detectors,but seem to always come back to the Sovereign or keep one while using a different detector.I bet most the know it may use a different detector,but has a Sovereign in reserve." Good Luck to all and their Sovereigns Rick''

 

[deepdiger60]

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This Sovereign model is known as the Original. It differs from the newer models by being the only Sovereign with a switch to turn iron mask off & on. It has a battery with a plug in connector .. Some say this is the deepest seeking Sovereign when used with the iron mask turned off. This Detector came with the solid , white 8 inch Coinsearch Coil that remains a favorite of many Sovereign Owners yet today.The Coinsearch coil is NOT waterproof.




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[chopz54]

The Sovereign Original has no volume control knob,which is actually the gain control.When the Original is first turned on its very noisy,even to the point where the box even vibrates.This Sovereign has an appetite for hot rocks.Most of the hot rock signals with this detector will sound like deep coin targets,for most people this problem is too difficult to work around.

 

[deepdiger60]

This is the second Sovereign model the BBS XS with a volume control.This is one of the better models great performance very stable.One of Rick'sND favorite Sovereigns.Thank you Jim for finding a great video for this Sovereign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-JzbgICpgw

 

[Rick(ND)]

The XS was my first Sovereign and really thought I made a mistake when I first used it. I got in in the winter too to make it tougher as I couldn't use it until spring. I think you will find many that tried the Sovereign and didn't like it either and some sold it after a day or 2, the worst I seen was a guy we helped on the forums that really wanted one so we gave him the info and told him it takes some time to get to know it and do great with it. After he tried it one hour it was up for sale. Those the stayed with it and learned it well from actual in Field use found out it is a detector that no detector could match it as it was kicking butt all over for those that spent the time and went out and used it and learned from experience.
Now the XS stands for Extra Sensitive which it was and had a volume control where the original never did. The XS didn't have the toggle switch to turn on or off the iron mask as most that had the original never used it anyway once they got to know it well as they found better finds with it on, so all the Sovereigns made until the GT were in iron mask all the time. The XS also had some better tones than the original and from my Experience with the XS and then trying a original I found the XS to be more sensitive as the name stood for and got better depth for me also.
The XS came with the 8 inch coinsearch coil which to this day is still preferred as it seem like the tones stood out more and lingered a little longer so it was easier to learn the Sovereign with the 8 inch coinsearch coil. This was the same coil used on the original Sovereign and also used the same batter pack that was a wire you plugged into the pack, so it has good connection. One draw back to this plug in pack used on the original and the XS is you had to be careful when pulling the plug out of the pack and many would grab the black shield of the wire to unplug it only to pull the shield off the plug and pull the wires loose. Those that came into my shop and those i sold I put some shrink wrap over the black shield and the wire and draped a little over the front of the plug so it covered the metal a little so the shield wouldn't pull off the actual plug.
The first impression of my first Sovereign, the XS was too basic compared to other detector, but found out they were built like a tank as I sold mine the next year to get a XS2 with the 10 inch coil as the XS was replaced with the XS2 in 1998. I sold my XS to a guy new to detecting and he really did well with it and after 5 years of hard detecting and sitting in his car that got so hot the Sun Ray meter and the Sun Ray probe started to melt and found over 1000 silver coins and so many IH and wheaties he switched to the Explorer and I sold his XS that still worked like the day I got it
You will find the XS and the 8 inch coinsearch coil are in high demand more than any other model Sovereign other then the GT and the XS was the start of Minelab being where it is today for the hobbyist.

I sure hope this didn't get too long as it is hard not to talk about one of my best detectors I have used in my 39 years of detecting.


Rick

 

[Ron from Michigan]

The Sovereign XS-2 and X-S2 Pro were identical,but the Pro came with both the 800 & 1000 BBS search coils and also included the new 550 Minelab Digital meter.This Sovereign was the first to use the waterproof BBS coils.The X-S2 and the XS Sovereign were the same except for the newer BBS coils and new sealed battery pack.The X-S2 and Pro sealed battery pack relied on a pressure plate, unlike the Sovereign which used a M series inlet power plug system.The older plug-in system worked much better that the pressure plate,and at present many of the X-S2s are being converted back into the plug setup.The Sovereign XS-2 is one of my favorite models.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

The Minelab X-S2a Pro is identical to the X-S2 except for the tone switch.This detector used the BBS coils.This Sovereign new sold with an option of having either the 1000 or 800 coil and came with the Minelab Digital 550 meter.Most felt a switch to turn off the tone ID on X-S2a was unnecessary or not needed.Most Sovereign users think the performance isn't as good compared to the early Sovereign XS or X-S2 Pro models.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I too felt the performance was the same, but felt the older 8 coinsearch coil used on the XS seem to work better than the 10 inch coil on the XS2 as while comparing signals I found the 8 inch coinsearch got better depth, so I found a used Coinsearch and put on my XS2 and this was the set up I got deepest targets with.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Sovereign Elite break through,first model to use the Tornado Coils,new battery system and has Band 1 and 2 for a frequency shift.The Elite is the only model that has the on off volume control switched to the location where the threshold control was located.Most users fumble with the threshold knob to turn the Sovereign to the on or off position.

 

[deepdiger60]

The late Norfolk Wolf did a good video on the pro,s and cons of the Minelab Elite detector , worth a look good information Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhpMMNfslQ

 

[deepdiger60]

IMO the Sov GT is hard to beat but it has it,s flaws also like most machines in this video Des Dunes explains just the basic,s might been a little better if he tossed in a few tricks and shortcuts to use the GT better for beginners and about 3 knobs and switches on the control box are really not necessary other then those it,s a great machine . Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3sMeh6gm1c

My own GT set up hip mounted with Insight target meter, a SR S-1 search probe , S-12 coil one of the best , BW head phones.

 

[deepdiger60]

n/t

 

[deepdiger60]

Now here is a great video on the GT using a test garden at various depths by GunnarMN . Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQaIJdGkcC0

 

[Rick(ND)]

The GT is the latest model of the GT that is now being made, so it has the latest upgrades and features of any of the Sovereigns.
The GT uses the same battery set up as the Elite did and mounts the same to, but the color is different on the GT. First thing I like to mention is the control panel as the controls are changed position from the Elite and now like the older Sovereigns which many of us were used to. They have added a few more toggle switches too which looks like too much, but actually these do different functions many have added or had modded by someone else.
The normal all metal pinpoint/ disc toggle now has 3 positions and not 2 like the others do. The difference is you can turn off the iron mask now if you want to, the others Sovereigns was on all the time. With it on it can see good targets closer to iron, but may false a little more on iron which most use, now for those new to the Sovereign might want to turn it off as it will make the GT run smoother and easier to use.
Now on the GT we have a switch to run silent search or threshold which also is a new switch on the GT, before you would have to open up the control box and move a jumper wire if you wanted silent search. The older Sovereigns came with a threshold as many of us that really prefers the threshold as we can tell if we are swing the coil too fast as we get a solid null which can not be heard in silent search and miss some deeper targets we only hear a change in the threshold. I never liked silent search but see where it can come in handy when targets are far and few and you don't have to listen to the threshold of a low growl of iron as it seems it is always the last target it sees. Once targets become more plentiful I switch back to threshold tones.
Now the switch that is also a 3 way switch is Trac/lock/pinpoint is only active when it is in the all metal mode, so if in disc this switch is turned off. Being in all metal it give you the chance to use this detector for prospecting and the reason for the track and the lock switch and the pinpoint if for those like me that run disc and when we want to pinpoint we just switch to all metal as the trac/lock and pinpoint is always in pinpoint, so remember this switch is only used if you are in all metal as it don't work while in disc.
Now the other toggle switch is a band 1 or band 2 switch which is used if you run into some electrical interference or if another Sovereign is hunting close by as you can switch to a slightly different freq so there is no crosstalk between detectors. We find band 2 is the better one to run if you can as if you are using a 180 meter it seems the nickles will read higher in band 1 and most info on ID numbers match band 2.
The knob switches are the same as the other Sovereigns, so we don't have to go into those.
My opinion is the GT is the best Sovereign made as you can do more with it that some really did want, the weight is still a bit heavy, but you can hip mount or chest mount if the weigh is too much or even get a different rod so it can balance better. I feel the GT is a bit more sensitive too as I notice a little more falsing with it over the others i have used, but it is not a real problem as you check the signals from different angles and see the target will move or null out completely.

All the Sovereigns are great detectors for those that don't give up and spend the time to know them as the Sovereign gives you more info on every target and let you the operator decide to dig or now, you just got to learn what it is telling you.

Thanks for reading and wish you all luck with your Sovereigns, please post your finds so others can see what kind of job the Sovereigns can do.

Rick