silver sabre and the compadre?

[emubob]

i still have a working silver sabre with the 7"concentric coil.i don't have a compadre.as they both operate in the 12klz and the compadre has a reputation for finding small gold chains and jewellery,would not the sabre do as well,as they both operate in the same frequency,emubob

 

[Hombre]

Hello Bob,

There were several Silver Sabres models made through the years, which one do you have? I had the original Silver Sabre that came out in 1983, it was an under the pole mount with the lightweight aluminum sheet metal body, had three controls: Sensitivity and Disc. and an all-metal toggle switch. It did not go low enough in the Disc. mode to get the really small gold, but with the all-metal mode switched on it would do great.

 

[emubob]

i have the same 1983 model,bit scratched on the box but still works like the day it was bought,emubob

 

[Hombre]

Try the all-metal mode Bob, it will get the small gold, the Disc. mode will not go into the iron range well enough to get the small gold. The all-metal does not discriminate, so small ferrous junk items like nails, bobby pins, steel washers etc. will be detected.

The Compadre has an all-metal setting with it's simple one knob adjustment and that is the setting to get the small, thin gold chains. Same difference.

 

[machineman]

The problem with small chains is they sound like foil or iron when detected. Even with detectors that detect them easily like a Gold bug pro they are hard to find. I dig alot of jumpy foil signals looking for chains with little success. Im pretty sure I would find more gold if I just went for good targets. I would miss some gold, but would dig so much less junk it would be worth it. If you are detecting and find a pendant then you should switch to all metal and dig everything in the area to look for the chain it came from. I have found chains this way.

 

[Mega]

The original SS is a very sought after machine here in the UK especially with that 7'' coil combination that you have,the main reason being the discrimination on iron is in my mind one of the best in the business,they are not the deepest detectorr going but if you use disc of say 1 and the sensitivity as high as it will go and then back it off till its stable,you will then have a machine that wont miss much.

These cult machine in theory usually wont give a iron signal unless its a big lump of iron,it excels on very trashy roman/saxon sites as it will only beep if its a good target,i have the Silver Sabre 11 and although its over 30 years old not many modern machines can keep up with it on trashy sites.They also love finding gold and especially silver hammered coins.

 

[Monte]

i still have a working silver sabre with the 7"concentric coil.

Introduced in 10/'83 a good one still finds a lot of coins and such, and uses the good 7" Concentric coil. I sold a friend and hunting buddy a brand new one in May of '86 to get started in the hobby, and we went to my favorite ghost town in October of '86 when she nabbed a gorgeous 1880 CC $5 gold coin. Her Silver Sabre still works today, beaten and abused, but it lacks the performance of some newer models, which she uses now.

i don't have a compadre.

Might not need one. If interested, why? There are added features to an up-line model that provide some versatility and I would suggest shopping for a newer or current Tesoro to have more performance, search coil interchangeability, and more functional controls.

as they both operate in the 12klz and the compadre has a reputation for finding small gold chains and jewellery,would not the sabre do as well,as they both operate in the same frequency,emubob

The operating frequency doesn't really mean all that much with many makes and models, especially most of the "general purpose" Tesoro's. Tesoro-made models have operated from 9.6 kHz to 15 kHz and all use the same search coils and there's not really an edge for gold jewelry due to operating frequency.

Where the Compadre has a bit of advantage at responding to small gold chains and other lower-conductive jewelry, is in the Discrimination range of acceptance. The original Silver Sabre and other early Tesoro models had a lot of Discrimination at the minimum setting. Many hobbyists found their Tesoro's lacking in performance on small gold rings and thin chains. In 9/'91 Tesoro brought out the Silver Sabre II which was the preset-GB model that had the then-new ED-120 Discriminate circuitry range. That was Tesoro's move to provide better performance on the low-end conductivity targets.

The Compadre, however, is one of only a few Tesoro models that offered an ED-180 range of acceptance, and at the absolute minimum Disc. setting the Compadre will have virtually no rejection. It's in an All Metal accept Discrimination setting, thus superior to the old Silver Sabre. You can toggle your Silver Sabre into the All Metal setting, which is still a motion Disc. mode and comes very close to accepting all metals, both ferrous and non-ferrous. In a trashy site with a lot of iron most hobbyists don't care to hear it all.

The better Discriminating Tesoro models, to respond well to low, mid and high conductive targets but best deal with iron rejection, are the earlier models with the ED-120 range of Discrimination acceptance. That was introduced in the Tesoro circuitry design with the original Bandido in 3/'90 and would include models such as the Bandido, Bandido II and Bandido µMAX, Cutlass II, Golden Sabre II, Pantera, Silver Sabre II and Toltec II.

There are newer models that also have the ED-120 Discriminate range, but they also had a newer "low-noise/high-gain" circuitry and while they could adjust lower to hit on thin gold, etc., they also have a little more noise and problem in a dense iron littered site compared with the former models I mentioned. Still, all the newer ED-120 models will hit on lower-conductive gold better than the limited Disc. range units like you have.


Monte

 

[emubob]

thank you monte,emubob

 

[Hombre]

thank you monte,emubob

Hey emubob,

I tried to help you out by explaining to you how to use your Silver Sabre to look for small gold without spending more money on another detector.

The Silver Sabre can and will find small gold when toggled to all-metal mode, I've done it with mine in places that are easy digging like tot lots.

The all-metal will signal great on small gold, then when you get a hit on a target, flip the switch back to Disc.mode set to Minimum to check out the signal, if the signal is choppy dig it as it is above nail rejection. You will dig a lot of low conductive trash such as small foil to find the gold but that is part of the game.

 

[emubob]

thank you too,hombre.i'll give it a go.it's one i use some times when i'm feeling a bit nostalgic for the old days.emubob