I received a new Sovereign GT from Bart the other day. Services was excellent. This is my only detector at this time. I ordered an eight inch Tornado coil and SunRay Headphones. I also called Ralph and he will be making me a S1 Probe for it. I ordered rubber covers for the switches. I did own an Explorer a few years back but sold it to move on to another hobby. I will be hunting in parks, relic hunting and some fresh water beaches. I have a lot of old farm homes and a few old logging camps. I enjoy researching for areas to hunt almost as much as I do the detecting. I need to get a couple of digging tools. I may get a meter for it later. I am always open for comments on how to use and/or setup ideas. I am on my second reading of the manual while I wait for the weather to clear. Tony
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New Minelab Sovereign GT User
- Thread starter bulkness
- Start date
GeorgeinSC
Well-known member
I have had my GT since the end of July 2012, When I first started trying to use it I seriously wondered why I had ever purchased the miserable thing. So many different tones and I could not figure out what it was trying to tell me. Finally broke down and purchased one of the meters from Ron In Michigan and started to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I am finally beginning to recognize part of what the machine is trying to tell me. My hearing is poor at best so my learning curve has been much longer than it would have been with good hearing. It is an Excellent machine. Now that I understand the language of the machine I would not trade it for anything. I plan on my GT and I having a long term relationship.
deepdiger60
New member
Just keep hunting with it that's the only way to learn take your time and try different settings , and most of all stay with this forum and ask ask ask !!! there are some real experts on Sovereign,s in here in a short time you will get the hang of it .
HH Jim
HH Jim
JimmyCT
Well-known member
Congrats on your new GT! I am with Pete (birdseed) and GeorgeinSC on "hating" it. When I first went into my backyard and started hunting, I said to myself, "self what did you get yourself into buying this Sovereign GT? " It was very frustrating to say the least. I then started asking questions here on the forum. The first link below will get you there. Now for the positive side: after listening to the advice here on the forum, I was able to go back into the field and understand what people were explaining to me. My anxiety with learning the detector decreased and the rest is history. Without this forum, I know I would of sold the detector because it is frustrating....however stick with it (I encourage you to look into buying a meter too) as that accelerated the learning curve big time (at least for me anyway) It is an awesome detector and will help you find many great things. Just keep the sweep swing low and slow. Also search posts about the "sovereign wiggle" "iron mask versus non-iron mask", and sensitivity. Once thing I truly love about the sov GT is the multi-harmonic tones. Good luck and I wish you the best in the field. Don't forget to stop in on the forum and ask questions. - Jim
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1459753,1459753#msg-1459753
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1842847
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1459753,1459753#msg-1459753
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1842847
bulkness,
Good advice here - I've had my GT for right at one year - it didn't take too long to learn the basics of the machine, but I have to say, I'm probably just now really starting to learn it; however, the help on this site is excellent.
I started learning much more once I bought a meter for it. It's the sounds, but the sounds and the number make more sense for me most of the time - much of that is due to my hearing as well. However, I make myself not use the meter sometimes too, just so I don't become overly dependant on it. It took me a little time to stop looking at the meter for everything. Then I learned that it's a combination of the sound and the meter reading that will tell me most.
So do learn the sounds as best you can - do some testing at home with bottle caps, pull tabs, screw caps, copper pennies, zinc pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, silver, gold, etc. It will make a huge difference in what you hear, and in what to listen for.
Hope to start seeing some of your finds on the site here as well. And if you have questions, the people here are most helpful.
Best of luck, HH,
Good advice here - I've had my GT for right at one year - it didn't take too long to learn the basics of the machine, but I have to say, I'm probably just now really starting to learn it; however, the help on this site is excellent.
I started learning much more once I bought a meter for it. It's the sounds, but the sounds and the number make more sense for me most of the time - much of that is due to my hearing as well. However, I make myself not use the meter sometimes too, just so I don't become overly dependant on it. It took me a little time to stop looking at the meter for everything. Then I learned that it's a combination of the sound and the meter reading that will tell me most.
So do learn the sounds as best you can - do some testing at home with bottle caps, pull tabs, screw caps, copper pennies, zinc pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, silver, gold, etc. It will make a huge difference in what you hear, and in what to listen for.
Hope to start seeing some of your finds on the site here as well. And if you have questions, the people here are most helpful.
Best of luck, HH,
I've had my GT for about 2 mos. I was intimidated by all the same questions and answers but basically it's pretty simple, the hard part for me with my bad hearing was/is the tones but Ron's meter made all the difference and now I'm learning the tones easier.
HH and good luck, this thing goes deep!
HH and good luck, this thing goes deep!
Neil
Well-known member
Tony best of luck with it. Stick with it, its probably the most versatile detector Ive ever used and theres a huge selection of coils and other aftermarket goodies available for it. The headphones and coil are great choices. I personally dont care for the S1 probe, rather not have anything mounted on the pole like that. I prefer the Garrett pro pointer. I would recommend the black hipmount/chestmount bag for it. Part of the versatility of the Sov is its configuration, you can chest mount it and since you will be on beaches, wading should be something you should look into. As far as scoops, head over to the beach forum and have fun reading about them.
I would also recommend paying attention to the sounds the Sovs giving you and then digging to learn while your hunting. I dont like beating my brains in on deciding to dig or not, way to many variables on what alters signals. Just like with your Explorer, if you got to know that well, you will get a feel for sounds and target sizes. The Sov gives a broader response than your Explorer did and also it resets slower from target to target.
Pick up Gary Draytons book on the Sov, its pretty straightforward and goes into more detail about actual hunting settings.
Your already set up pretty good just by having the explorer experience, that will help you alot.
enjoy it
I would also recommend paying attention to the sounds the Sovs giving you and then digging to learn while your hunting. I dont like beating my brains in on deciding to dig or not, way to many variables on what alters signals. Just like with your Explorer, if you got to know that well, you will get a feel for sounds and target sizes. The Sov gives a broader response than your Explorer did and also it resets slower from target to target.
Pick up Gary Draytons book on the Sov, its pretty straightforward and goes into more detail about actual hunting settings.
Your already set up pretty good just by having the explorer experience, that will help you alot.
enjoy it
Lot of info here and the first thing I would like to say is make it simple to begin with to help in the learning process, I been using the Sovereign since 1996 and like some say you do learn something new each time out with it.
You will wonder at first if you made the right choice as most of us did, but those that stuck with it and had the patience will tell you it was the right choice. Learn it like you did driving a car a little at a time and don't try to go full speed until you learned it a bit to know what to expect. Run your sensitivity at auto to help learn the tones as it makes the threshold smoother and once you get to know the tones you can go to manual and set it for the best performance. I see you got the 8 inch coil and I would use that one to learn it with too as it will make it easier to learn and pinpoint. A meter will be nice as you can see what you are hearing in digital number for those tones that are too close for your ears to tell the difference in. I see you are having Ralph at Sun Ray built you a S-1 probe which is a very good choice and really help you finding those deep targets and targets in the side of the hole, I like mine also for the nice areas where the lawns is nice as I can use the S-1 to find the target without digging a plug if it is not deeper than4 inches or so which saves me time in recovering a target.
Air test are good for seeing what some targets sound like and some will sound different in actual hunts than air test, but you can get a idea with the air test, but don't expect much depth with air test as it is the actual in the ground targets you will see the great depth once you learn the Sovereign. Some learn it well the first few time out with it, some take a while and it takes a lot of patience for some. It took me a good 3-4 weeks to get comfortable with my Sovereign in 1996, but it clicked one day and I was pulling coin after coin out of a old worked out park and made me a believer in the Sovereign, just took patience and getting out to use it.
One more tip I thought about is to begin with is go to places with a lot of new coins at to give a chance to hear the many different sounds and be able to pick out the good tones from the bad, makes it a lot easier than going to a well worked out area and getting only the trash signals as most all the good target have been got already.
The main thing is have fun and enjoy this great detector, learn what you can in the actual hunts and be prepared to impress others and yourself what the Sovereign can do.
Good Luck
Rick
You will wonder at first if you made the right choice as most of us did, but those that stuck with it and had the patience will tell you it was the right choice. Learn it like you did driving a car a little at a time and don't try to go full speed until you learned it a bit to know what to expect. Run your sensitivity at auto to help learn the tones as it makes the threshold smoother and once you get to know the tones you can go to manual and set it for the best performance. I see you got the 8 inch coil and I would use that one to learn it with too as it will make it easier to learn and pinpoint. A meter will be nice as you can see what you are hearing in digital number for those tones that are too close for your ears to tell the difference in. I see you are having Ralph at Sun Ray built you a S-1 probe which is a very good choice and really help you finding those deep targets and targets in the side of the hole, I like mine also for the nice areas where the lawns is nice as I can use the S-1 to find the target without digging a plug if it is not deeper than4 inches or so which saves me time in recovering a target.
Air test are good for seeing what some targets sound like and some will sound different in actual hunts than air test, but you can get a idea with the air test, but don't expect much depth with air test as it is the actual in the ground targets you will see the great depth once you learn the Sovereign. Some learn it well the first few time out with it, some take a while and it takes a lot of patience for some. It took me a good 3-4 weeks to get comfortable with my Sovereign in 1996, but it clicked one day and I was pulling coin after coin out of a old worked out park and made me a believer in the Sovereign, just took patience and getting out to use it.
One more tip I thought about is to begin with is go to places with a lot of new coins at to give a chance to hear the many different sounds and be able to pick out the good tones from the bad, makes it a lot easier than going to a well worked out area and getting only the trash signals as most all the good target have been got already.
The main thing is have fun and enjoy this great detector, learn what you can in the actual hunts and be prepared to impress others and yourself what the Sovereign can do.
Good Luck
Rick
. I am looking forward to become more active on the forum.GeorgeinSC said:
I have these replies with "you'll hate before you love it" sounds like a great foundation for the start of an extend relationship. All the tones is what worries me as my hearing is not that great either. I am hoping the SunRay Headphones will help with that. I need to get a call into Ron to see if his meter will work with the S-1 probe as that should be here shortly. Learning a new language is not one of my stronger suits but I am sure I will get this langauge fully understood.
If Ralph is building you one I would think he would make the cable that runs from the switching box of the Probe to the GT control box longer as most of the S-1 were made for a meter that sits on top of the probe switching box and had a real short cable, so if you add the meter to this the cable will be plenty long as it will go to the meter and the cable from the meter will then go to your GT control box.
My hearing is super bad and I need the volume to hear the slight tones of the deep and found the Sun Ray Pro gold were a excellent headphones, but the volume was not loud enough for me and use the Timberwolf headphones and have a set of the Uni Probe too that the volume is louder on. Unless you are almost deaf like I am I feel the Sun Ray Pro Golds will work good for you.
Rick
My hearing is super bad and I need the volume to hear the slight tones of the deep and found the Sun Ray Pro gold were a excellent headphones, but the volume was not loud enough for me and use the Timberwolf headphones and have a set of the Uni Probe too that the volume is louder on. Unless you are almost deaf like I am I feel the Sun Ray Pro Golds will work good for you.
Rick
JASONSPAZ1
New member
I have used the sovereign series since the 90s and have found it to be the most versatile detector one could own. You will love it. Just stick with it.
The 10x12 Sef coil is awesome. All your questions about the GT can be answered here. Also the Ron's meter is the best accessory you can get for the machine. Learn how to pinpoint with the tip of your coil without using the pinpoint toggle.
HH
Jason
The 10x12 Sef coil is awesome. All your questions about the GT can be answered here. Also the Ron's meter is the best accessory you can get for the machine. Learn how to pinpoint with the tip of your coil without using the pinpoint toggle.
HH
Jason