That mod was a simple one as the tones were maxed out and there was a jumper wire I believe to make it a singe tone which defeats the purpose of the Sovereigns and multi tones. This mod I feel was made more for those that didn't like all the different tones. I bought used Sovereigns that people didn't like and so many had the mods done and didn't like them.
That jumper wire mod must have been for the older Sovereigns (original The Sovereign, Sovereign XS (eXtra Sensitive), and Sovereign XS-2 & XS-2 Pros). Those could be converted to Single Tone, but it had to be done by a dealer, probably since the dealer would need to open up the control box to add the jumper. Starting with the Sovereign XS-2a and up through the GT, Minelab added a switch on the faceplate to switch between Single tone & multi-tone. I've always used the multi-tones in Discrim mode, as that gives me an initial audio ID of the potential target, based on target conductivity.
While having them I did my mods of them buy putting the rubber boots on the toggle switches and putting some shrink whap on the plug in on the battery connectors on the XS.
That was a mod I wanted to do, just never got around to it. Simple/easy mod. I probably delayed doing the mod since I wear my Elite in a Minelab pouch around my neck (see profile pic) and have the box inside a clear plastic bag for extra protection. That said, the rubber boot mod was inexpensive to do, and pretty cool, so I may still wind up adding those.
To me like the tones on the factory setup on the Sovereigns, didn't like the single tones, but seen where on the GT could see where there is time I could use it, but not often for my coin hunting . I like the different tones for IDing each and everything the coil went over , sometimes real slow and like the 180 meters as they were very much more accurate for the tones that were real close, the 550 over lapped too much.
Ditto, I didn't mess with the factory settings for the tones. I've been using my Elite with original tones for the last 14+ years, so if I modded those now, it would probably mess my brain up, lol.
The mod I did like was a fellow (cant remember his name right off hand) he was making straight shaft and moved the control box back under the arm cuff and made the Sovereign feel real light, but adding my S-1 Sun-ray probe did make ti a little heavier and he made me a extension so I could move the control box back further to balance it more and I turned the V clip so the controls were easier to switch it to all metal to check the pinpointing plus to see if there was any iron close to the target.
That might have been CritterHunter. He had a Sovereign GT and posted a lot of mods for Sov's. I remember he made a straight shaft, posted the instructions. At that time, he became a bit "famous" on the forums as he figured out a way to add a pinpoint switch to the grip/handle of his shaft, so he could switch between Discrimination & Pinpoint modes. For my Sov Elite, it was a fairly simple mod, but it was more complicated to do on the GT. But he figured out how to do it and posted those instructions as well. I just found a huge stash of mods I had printed out from the forums back around 2011/12/13 timeframe. Lots of those mods I got from CritterHunter, and also from Joe Beechnut (OBN/Joe), as he was doing the headphone conversions for the Peltor earmuffs and a lot of mods for Excals. It will take me a while to go through them all. I think if I stacked all those mod papers in a stack, it would probably be about 3 feet tall, lol.
As you see I like my Sovereigns and feel they have done well for me, but they are slow moving at times which some dont have the patience to go slow and listen to all the tone changes, some think you move the coil faster is the way to go to get better depth (one someone mention that was on the BBS forum) argued with me on going slow to get the depth, then when you get that slight tone change you do the Sovereign wiggle which is the fast swing over the small area where the slight tone is and get it to start climbing to the correct tone. If you were swinging fast you would never had heard that slight tone change to know there was a deeper good signal so you would have walked right over it.
I do a combination of swing speeds on the beach. If I'm working the dry, my swing is typically a bit faster, and I get better coverage with my 12x10 SEF Butterfly coil. But when I'm on the wet and into shallow water, I slow my swing way down because there's a higher chance of finding deep gold & silver. Plus, when hunting in shallow or deeper water, gotta swing slow as the water really doesn't allow for fast swing speeds, lol.
This is something I tried in a old park we been hitting for years and many says it worked out, I went around the old merry go round just to see if there was some real deep coins. I did well for being worked out as I picked up a few mercs and got one iffy signal and knew it was deep, but it was iffy and repeatable so I stated digging and checking with my S-1 probe, but wasn't close enough for it to be seen with the probe. I went though the gravel then dirt than some fine sand and found a standing lib quarter and had a V nickel a little deeper. Done I measured I had hole I dug 14-16 inches down. It took me over a hour and a haft to go around that merry go round so slow and listen to every little tone changes and check it out.
CritterHunter had a talent for finding deep, deep Merc's in old, worked out parks. He would routinely post about finding Merc's about 15" down with his GT. Mercs just seemed to love him, and would patiently lie in wait until he came by with his GT, lol.
At one time I wanted to travel around the country and some that had a problem with the Sovereign to help them understand it better, many of those I helped with E mails took a while in some cases, I remember one out east that was hunting with one of my used Sovereigns and was ready to give up, but told him to stick with it as it takes time mostly and gave him tips and after a few time he was doing great and the people he was detecting with didn't want to detect with hm anymore as he was getting all the good targets.
I started detecting 56 years ago as a kid, and from then until now, I gradually upgraded my detectors to newer/better technology over time. Still, it took me a while to wrap my head around all the different tonal pitches I was hearing from the Sovereign. Basically, IMHO, the only way to learn all those tones, was I had to dig everything, so that my brain could start associating certain tones with the targets they represented. It took me about 1 or 2 seasons if I recall and a lot of digging on the beach, but I was finally able to pretty much know what I was going to dig up. It was pretty cool to think "dime" and I'd find a dime in my scoop, or quarter, nickel, etc. But for those who are newbies and have never detected, starting with a Sovereign could probably lead to needing some counseling, as their brains would probably have melted, lol.
The bad thing now for me is getting out to use my detectors as I had a triple bypass done around 12 years ago and had both my knees replaced around 6 year ago and know it is very hard to get up and down and seem to wear out too fast, last time out my Grandson was watching me and had to help me up as I couldn't stand up and when he got me up I fell right over. I will be 78 in a couple of month and not real ready to quit yet.
I keep watching these forums and enjoy all the great finds everyone if finding.
Glad to see that you're still going Rick, keep it up. I just turned 68 in July. Strange thing is, I mentally feel like I'm still 30, so I do things like I'm still 30, but always seem to forget that my body is 68. Tried out my new X-Terra Elite at my grandson's house, which was built in 1925, so I was back to my roots, coinshooting an old house. But I haven't done that probably in the last 15 or so years. Getting down to dig & digging the hole wasn't a problem. The problem was getting back up off the ground. That's when I felt every one of those 68 years, lol. But thank the Lord, I don't have any serious medical issues to deal with, so I've been blessed and hope that I can continue as well.
Good luck and hope to see someone find a gold coin in a well worked area.
Rick
Same to you Rick. I think I'm now well covered with my Dual Field PI, Minelab Sovereign Elite, and my new X-Terra Elite. My beach hunting plan is to use a combination of my Sovereign and Dual Field PI. Hit the wet and shallow water with my Sov in discrim first, so I can hear threshold nulls if going over iron. That way, I'll know if there's a lot of iron. If there isn't, I'll bring out the DF PI. If lots of iron, I'll keep using my Sov in all metal, sensitivity cranked up as high as possible. I'll use my X-Terra Elite on land for coinshooting, or even the beach if it looks like rain, as it's waterproof. Between those 3 detectors, I think I might have a good shot of getting some more shiny metal objects, lol. Stay well my friend.
