The Sovereign Is A Hard Machine To Love

[Critterhunter]

Think about it. A machine that isn't advertised, is heavy in stock form, requires you to buy a meter sperately, and even then the stock meter mount hides it...requiring you to mock up a custom mount. No normal pinpoint switch location like on just about any other machine either. It's like Minelab has done everything they could do to make the machine unattractive to buyers...YET the machine has a cult following. Why is that? It must be performance. I'd like to hear why you fought all the above negatives and decided this was the machine for you.

For me, in my soil it's the deepest machine I ever owned. It gives a more stable ID at depth than my Explorers ever did. It also is less finicky about things like Sensitivity settings than my Explorers were. It's just as deep as an Explorer or Etrac without the hassle of worrying about this and that setting.

 

[dbsmokey]

I rapidly tired of endless tangled mess of cords necessary resulting with a pinpointer (if a sunray is chosen) and an aftermarket meter. Hip mounting only worsened the cord problem. I was able to solve the weight problem by hip mounting. However, I drew the line with the requirement of toggle switch covers. It is absolutely nonsense, in my opinion, that one must purchase aftermarket protection for switches, else they fail in 6 months. It became simply too many mods just to make the detector bearable. I think the performance of the sov is probably good, I just couldn't get past the above. Furthermore, I found my excal more stable in my soil. Hence, I sold the sov and kept the excal...I couldn't be happier.

 

[goodmore]

Excalibur=
1 new straight shaft
1 set of new knobs
1 chest harness
1 set of headphone replacement pads
1 backup alkaline pod
1 new charger with a light

Moral of the story: We strive to improve the little things regardless of the unit.

 

[synthnut]

The only metal detector that I have owned and have not modded is the E Trac ......but I do use a Swingy Thingy with it ......Jim

 

[JimmyCT]

That is why I bought the GT. After countless readings, research, reviews and pre & post tech support via findmall, I plunged the loot and found out what the machine hype was all about. I am glad I bought it despite the "negatives" weight, cords, meter and custom meter bracket, I believe all these are outweighed by its "hype" that is its power and abilities in the field. I am happy with my purchase of the Sovereign GT and that is all that matters.

 

[Rob in (Ca)]

For Beach combing salt dry/wet sand looking for lost Jewelry The GT & S-12 Hip mounted is The best I have ever used, I can swing for 5 + hours with that setup ( I tried all top end detectors to) Unfortunately, for the same type of hunting at the park/sports fields The DFX & Bigfoot win that prize.

 

[hershey1]

Glad to see you back Critter hope you are doing well. I loved the Soveriegn but the E-Trac is my go to machine now unless I'm water hunting then I prefer the Excall. I feel comfortable with the tones and sounds of MLs and had too many birthdays to learn or try to learn any more machines. Don't find anything any ways just like to get out. What ever happened to Crazyman? HH

 

[Neil]

For Beach combing salt dry/wet sand looking for lost Jewelry The GT & S-12 Hip mounted is The best I have ever used, I can swing for 5 + hours with that setup ( I tried all top end detectors to) Unfortunately, for the same type of hunting at the park/sports fields The DFX & Bigfoot win that prize.

Ive never tried a DFX but if I found one for a decent price I would try it. Ive read they are good on smaller gold.

 

[GunnarMN]

Critter you have become a man of few words, so let me add to them , I got the GT because i liked the fact that is had 17 frequencys going all the way down to 1.5khz this ment it would go a bit deeper than my musky and the problem I have up hear in minnesota is we have some very badd ground in some spot and i mean spot that even the disq of the GT will not get thru I was Impressed with the all metal fixed and how it handles the worst of ground and hot rocks and can still find a dime way down thear , and if you want more depth the pinpont mode is really deep and you can search in it this greatly Impressed me , ya you kinda dig blind in the really badd ground but In this all metal mode you can tell high conductors and low just by the sounds the musky did not do that so when i was at the St croix river with its magnetic basalt i just blasted righ thru it and if i had a bit more time i know i would have come up with a good find the depth is better than anything i have owned I would like a manuel ground balance opton and have the pinpont switch on the handle but ya it kiks but thru total black sand like or better than a P,I machine I would like a gpx4800 but I have to pay off my 6400.00 judgment from capiton one , Good day and good hunt to you critter

 

[Rick(ND)]

First impression is not good and looks bulky, heavy and the tones are so weird and without a meter you wonder how can you ever learn it. Some never used them enough to see what they can really do, or don't want to learn what the Sovereign is telling them, so they get rid of them. It does seem like a lot of cable running all over with the meter, and the Sun Ray pin pointer than add the headphones, so it is not as easy as some detectors is the use.
Now those that get to know them find the weight can be over come with hip mounting and the cables seem to be no real problem and learn to adapt after a person sees what the Sovereigns can really do with picking out good target out of worked out area and depth many thought was not possible plus digging a coin out next to a nail. Like most things to get the best you may have to adapt your style of hunting and put up with some of the minor inconvenience as it don't mater when you see that silver and gold.

 

[hotwheels]

I have the Sov Elite, have been using it 10 years now? The unit is heavy until you make the decision to mount the box on the rear and leave it. Now its balanced.

* Sunray probe a must.
* Digital meter a must. Convert to 180.
* Sunray headphones with limiter a must.
* 10" coil a must.
* 8" coil a must.

Now your messing with a loaded weapon!

Now the coil. 10" coil really nice if not too trashy. Heavy yes but you swing loosely in your hand. Swing slow back and forth 2-3 times in same sweep area and the signals in the iron/trash will come through. 17 Freq's remember! Remember the wiggle.

Now the 8" coil. Awesome in balance, weight, separation and depth. With the 8" coil at end it's much easier to use. Been pulling lots of round between iron. Remember the wiggle.

Now the noise. There are 3 tones 1low(foil) ,2med(Nickle), 3high(silver).
* Low tone has low tone 1a,1b,1c,1d etc.
* Med tone has Med tone 2a,2b,2c,2d etc.
* High tone has High tone 3a,3b,3c,3d etc.
Now these noises with or without meter will correspond. Either with 550 or 180.
The a,b,c,d,etc is the level you decide to decipher deeper within the tone range. This I suppose is where the term "Learning the SOV tones" is. ie: clean, breaking, warble etc.
I'm probably at the b level.

Settings. Turn on and go. Volume at 3/4, Slight thresh hum, sense at 10, disc mode, counter on the disc.
In trash use the disc settings. Dont be afraid to use it. It will disc. Remember your tone levels and noise.

The Sov will and does eek out goodies in iron. If your hitting allot of nulling, increase the thresh louder and listen through the null.

Love the SOV..HH Dano

 

[synthnut]

Critter had mentioned in an earlier thread about how " telling " the tone was on the Sovereign and how hard it was to find anything like it ...... I use to call it a "sexy" tone ...... After selling my Sovereign GT a while back , I did not realize how much I really enjoyed the tone of the Sovereign and how telling and sexy it really was and IS !!...... Besides my Excal , my Sovereign is STILL one of my favorite beach machines ..... I think that the Sovereign and the E Trac are probably the top 2 machines that people buy , and sell right away simply because they do not give them a chance , and do not get to know the machine ...... They want instant gratification .....RickND is right about folks selling the Sov after not much time using it ..... For those of us who have put some miles on our Sov's , we know better .....Jim

 

[Ron from Michigan]

The Sovereign is very under appreciated for the first time user.Critter has a good point, Minelab hasn't promoted the Sovereign well and has failed to make these after market updates a factory option.I think once a user understands the Sovereign its probably the easiest and most efficient detector ever made. HH Ron

 

[JimmyCT]

Many here on this very forum helped sell me on the GT. I found so much useful information that one would never find in a brochure or instruction manual. There were several minelab (and other brand) detectors I was looking at and this Sovereign GT "stood out" in the way people (on findmall) wrote about its performance and capabilities. RickND and Critterhunter come instantly to mind and both were extremely helpful with questions that I had. I remember telling RickND that if this forum wasn't here, I would of quit even before I started lol. I remember when I first recieved the GT and took it into my backyard. I turned it on, acquainted myself with the controls and their functions and off I went. It wasn't long before (now I understand it was iron but at the time I had no clue) I encountered some of my very first signals and thought to myself " what in the h*ll did I just buy?" lol I couldn't figure out all the quirks and tones. I then thought to myself, " is this a target or not? I can't even pinpoint the stupid thing." I started thinking to myself that this was all a big mistake and maybe I should sell it. I continued to read posts and ask questions and kept at learning the many "spectrum" tones. I then installed my DTI II meter and then things really started making more sense with the tones. I also have hearing loss, so the meter was a life changer for me in learning the tones.

No doubt the sovereign definitely takes time to learn. Being laid-off this past summer I had lots of time to learn it and truly enjoyed building the relationship with the machine. It spoke and I listened lol. I have had my Sovereign GT for about 6 months now (first one ever) and I love it! Thanks to everyone on this board that has helped me with learning the machine. Thank you RickND for telling me not to give up. I feel had I sold the GT, I would of most certainly regretted the decision. Like critterhunter mentioned this machine really isn't advertised (this is something I really noticed when I was researching) but yet there are many that are absolutely "married" for life with their Sovereigns. Why is that? I believe the Sov itself is a hidden "treasure" right in plain view.

 

[Birdseed]

Welcome back Critter, love your posts.

Critter, you, believe it or not, helped influence my Sov purchase. I had built a couple of detectors in the past, I knew these were moderately simple affairs, but I was achieving results. This led me to investigate what was available commercially. Everywhere I looked I kept coming across references to the Minelab Sovereign. I knew by reputation that Minelab produced very good gold detectors and they were also into land-mine detection in the less stable places of the world. I am also a Radio Ham, so all those knobs attracted me, I can tune older radios well enough to pull signals out of the noise and talk to people all over the world. The newer radios are much more sensitive but you get what the manufacturer gives you. Oh for a little knob that would allow me to raise the audio tones or another to shift the IF frequency a tad. My wife says I am a control freak, sometimes refers to me as the "fat controller" (Thomas the Tank Engine). Anyway all those knobs on the Sovereign had me hooked. People were finding stuff on beaches fresh and salt, also on dry land, in parks and everywhere. For the price the Sovereign looked like the best bet. I finally made up my mind to buy one after about 2 years of procrastination and research on this and other forums, I must have read a thousand reviews, the Sovereign always seemed to shine.
I found I could not buy a Sovereign in Tasmania, I wanted to hold one, feel its balance, hear the sounds I had read so much about. Well eventually I went across to Melbourne Australia and found the address of a reputable detector shop. I walked in and asked to see a Sovereign, the Salesman said what do you want to detect ? Why would you want one of those ? I stood my ground and he finally pulled one down from the display rack. He turned it on and swept it around the concrete floor, it made an orchestra of noise. He said that as far as he was concerned they were useless and everyone hated them. We were off to a bad start. Anyway I stood my ground and finally managed to cut a deal with an extra AA battery pack and a car charger for the NmH battery thrown in. He wanted to sell me an X-terra, I think the profit margin must be higher on them.
Then the learning curve started, That was 3 years ago. Today I would not change it for anything.
I admit that I have bought a second detector, a Safari, for my wife. In all honesty I believe the Safari has great potential and may give the Sovereign a good run for the money, but it suffers much more from powerline and other interference. It also feels light and plastic compared to the Sov. I have yet to do field tests with the Safari and Sov side by side but I think the Sovereign has the edge.

Anyway I feel like I've been writing a novel here this morning. Sorry if I am going on too much

Love my Sov

Pete downunder

 

[Crispy Critter]

The Sovereign reports gold and silver target's with the sweetest tone's that I have ever heard come from a detector.

 

[Minelab50]

I Traded a Garrett Master Hunter ads 7 for a Sovereign and Donald Barthels booklet on Southern California beaches around 1990
while still in the Navy. I hunted the beaches of San Diego and around the globe then used the money from jewelry finds to pay a substantial
down payment on a new truck. I had found but a few jewelry pieces with the Garrett. I also sold my white's surfmaster and used the Sovereign
ever since as my beach machine.
The Sovereign(any model) is a proven performer and I guess Minelab knew that and stayed with it. If it ain't broke, etc.
As long as they make a Sovereign I will own one.

good diggin randy

 

[Thegreat26]

i love it because is Sovereign. It has the sweetest sound for silver. And once you go minelab you never go back. p.s i was really happy with my explorer ii but our soils here in cyprus needed more stability which i found in my sovvy.

 

[Tseeker]

All the above is great and very educational. I almost splurged on the Sov GT once but they since discontinued making the meter for it. No attempt to find one has been successful. If they start making them again-highly unlikely-then maybe I would try a Sov Gt.

 

[JHM]

The sovereign is not a hard machine to love but Minelab is a hard company to live. They're not customer oriented. Discontinuing the meter is a prime example of this. Also if you have and older sovereign or explorer, they wont service it. Neither will anyone else for that matter because Minelab wont sell any parts. I don't buy the parts are no longer made excuse. You can still get tubes for a radio made in 1940. So what's so special about parts for a sovereign? I still have a sovereign because I haven't found anything to replace it. I was going to buy an explorer SE but opted for an MXT instead, not because I didn't want an explorer. It was because of customer service. Last time I need a part from Whites the reply was "it will be in the mail in the morning." The Minelab reply was " Sir we sell detectors, not parts." Still pissed off about that one. If my old sovereign XS bites the dust, I don't know if I will try and replace it or not.