SOV GT SHOULD I

[redbird]

I'm thinking of getting this machine but I have some questions for all who want to answer
1 What is the best price that you can pay for this machine ?
2 Ground balance Do you have to ? or is it auto ?
3 Pinpointing Is it good on pinpointing how accurrate is it do I need a probe ?
4 Speed How slow do you go or can go ?
5 The meter Do I need to have this ?
6 Reliability How long did yours last before you sent it back ?
7 The company How would you rate with service ?
I'm expecting the good and the bad which will help me decide So I ask all to be Honest
And Also I Thank you for your time

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Redbird,if you buy a new Minelab GT the MSRP is pretty much set,but you could save a couple of dollars by shopping around.There are great dealers here that sponsor Findsmall Forum who sell Minelab GTs.Ground balance is automatic not manual no bobbing,very bad ground conditions turn sensitivity to auto.Pinpointing even in discrimination mode is great,which I use to pinpoint my targets 99.9 percent of the time.The pinpoint mode gives better pinpointing,but I would recommend a good after market pinpointer(for any metal detector) a few suggestions the Sunray S-1,Garrett Pro Pointer,or Detectorpro Pirate Probe.Swing speed, slower will work better the smaller coils 800 series and smaller not as critical.Another problem for me switching to a fast and slow sweep detector during the same hunt is like driving on the expressway and then driving in a school zone.Reliability have owned about nine Sovereigns including Three Gts and had no problems.Currently I have two trouble free XS that work very well.Meter,if you search at the beach not needed.Inland and park hunting the meter will give you much better depth with specific targets and help you learn tones better.The Sunray 180 DT series is the top choice for meters.I work on the KISS formula keep it simple stupid.The 550 meter which I have used is cheaper works well but requires more work.Never had any problems with Minelab service.Minelab makes great equipment. Good Luck Ron

 

[Guzz1]

You SHOULD ,,,, Great Detector,,,,, I have had 2 Gt's The first one I sold to get an excal 1000, I don't water hunt any longer sold the excal and bought another GT... I have had them all ,, The Gt works best for me .....

 

[redbird]

(if you search at the beach not needed.Inland and park hunting the meter will give you much better depth with specific targets and help you learn tones better.)
Besides the numbers for disc does it also tell depth with meter

 

[jbow]

1 What is the best price that you can pay for this machine ?

Ask you local dealer for the best price, the worst they can do is say no. Then ask someone else. IF you get a better price don't tell anyone. For the record, I paid list for mine but I have gotten good deals on other brands. The least you can expect is that the dealer to keep all the "extras" and give you a better price...

2 Ground balance Do you have to ? or is it auto ?

You need to ground balance in All Metal "track" then switch to search? I keep my switch in "pinpoint" and hunt in disc, it auto ground balances in disc. Then if I pinpoint I just flip to "all metal"and it's already in "pinpoint". Some people search, at some places, in AM pinpoint because you can swing fast. Then flip to disc to check the target. Also, if you get a target in disc then when you pinpoint, it moves... it is almost always is... well it is trash.

3 Pinpointing Is it good on pinpointing how accurrate is it do I need a probe ?

Pinpointing with a Sovereign GT is EXCELLENT. I can pinpoint very well without switching to "pinpoint" but... if you switch to pinpoint it is a short, quick beep that is east to center and it is there. The E-TRAC for instance may lose the target when you go to pinpoint and you have to switch back to disc, acquire again then switch back to pinpoint... not with the GT. You go to pinpoint and it pinpoints! Now, you still need a handheld pinpointer to help you recover the target. Some people will take the soil out handfull by handfull and wave it in front of the coil and that works but it makes more of a mess and it isn't for me. I have an inline probe but I don't use it anymore. It just isn't as good as some others IMO. The Uniprobe is the deepest I have used and only pinpoints from the end of the wand, it will hit 3.5 to 5 inches. Right now I am using the Garrett pinpointer, it is well built and detects from both the side and the end. You don't have to get one to start with but you'll want one eventually.

4 Speed How slow do you go or can go ?

You cannot swing it fast like a T2/F75 or a Tesoro but frankly, you don't have to swing in "slow motion" either. You will miss deeper targets in trash or high mineral if you swing too fast but usually a decent target will make a sound. Ifyou're going too fast the tone may be a little past where the target is but, it's easy to find. You won't miss a quarter at 6" in regular hunting. If it is badly masked and you are swinging too fast.. yep, you'll miss it. That s why people like to keep a threshold. When the threshold drops out you stop and slow down and check it out. However in high mineral or a lot of little iron or iron ore... you can pretty much forget keeping a threshold unless you go slow in "auto". But don't worry about it, it is easy to figure out if you stay with it and ask questions. I can point you to a couple of people who will make you a pro.

5 The meter Do I need to have this ?

YES. You need the meter. The SovereignGT has probably the best TID in the business. It is VERY stable and will lock on. If a target is deep or small you get right on it and wiggle the coil back and forth, about 1/2 to 1"... really fast and the number will begin to rise. Sometimes if it is really deep it will try but wont make it all the way up to it's proper number and stay there. The tone will be there though and these two things together are needed. The tones are not just a pitch either, there are "round" tones and rough tones, there are high to low tones and low to high tones in AM which make the AM actually have a slight disc quality. I forget the exact TID number but somewhere around a nickel, in AM, the tone switches from high to low, to low to high. It is a nuance at best but a useful nuance. On gold and silver jewelry... it is amazing how it locks on to the number and tone... GT does stand for "Gold and Treasure". You NEED the 180 meter!!

6 Reliability How long did yours last before you sent it back ?

The Sovereign is a solid machine and I have never had a moments trouble with it. Not many people do. If you are not under warranty David Keith at dixie-metal-detectors.com may be able to fix it. He does modifications to them that make them perform better. He did some early work with Minelab and learned some stuff but he will not tell you what he does, he has an understanding with ML and he, being honorable, keeps his knowledge to himself.. his modifications are good. I assume since he can modify them, he can probably fix them unless it's something serious like a board. Much of this is purely conjecture on my part though. All I know for sure is that he knows how to mod them, can't talk about it, and should be able to fix them... not that you'll need repair. It is one solid machine.

7 The company How would you rate with service ?

Never had to use it. I have an Explorer SE, an E-TRAC and have had the GT for years. Minelab has been going through a few changes in the last year, moving some facilities and I think they may have gotten behind on some things but I am sure they will get things back in order. I wouldn't give it a thought. I have absolutely no apprehension about buying any Minelab detector, they are the Harley-Davidson of detectors. They seem to over build and you'll find their detectors to feel substantial. The Sovereign is not the lightest detector but if you are on grass it is so well balanced that you can let the coil slide over the grass, let the weight rest on your forearm using the top strap of the cuff, and swing it with a finger. If you're in the woods or on the beach the BEST solution is a binocular harness from Cabelas or anywhere, they are cheap and clip right onto the nylon box cover that comes with the detector. Then it is chest mounted and that solves every weight problem. I have disc problems in my spine and it is no problem for me either way.

David, mentioned above, sells a little "offset" mount for the meter so that it sets maybe 2" to the side of the shaft. That really helps you to see it better, it also tilts it up slightly and that helps too.

Did you ever get the V3 figured out? It is a hard one for me, the GT is much easier IMO...

J

 

[Siliquaesid]

Ask yourself this BEFORE you buy;

WHY, when the sovereign came out, did Minelab tell us in their advertising that is could "see through" ground minerals and didn't need a ground balance yet now they tell us it does?

WHY does the GT have the SAME code in it's micro as the XS2a (Sovereign V1.1)?

WHY would you want to buy something you already have? I've used EVERY single model of Sovereign available. IMHO they are all the same (except for the dual band ones which use a mod stolen from a UK company) - yes you change the crystal frequency and it kills certain types of interference to make the machine more stable.

BTW you can ground balance the STANDARD NON GT Sovereign. Did you know that? Switch to "all metal" with the search head raised off the ground. Bob the head as you would to ground balance. Eventually you will find that the threshold tone stays constant. The micro on the Sovereign AUTO balances for you. Now hit Discriminate and detect as normal. All I see the GT doing is adding a switch to make it look as if you are doing something different. New money OLD ROPE. Of course I could be wrong, but it's what I've seen.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Redbird,most Sovereign hunter's use all metal very little.For park hunting the discrimination mode enables the use of tones and the meter.My opinion the tones and meter lock on targets are the reason most people use the Sovereign.Pinpoint mode will help to narrow in on a target,but again an inline or handheld pinpointer should be used less work,less ground damage and better chance to recover very deep targets.The Sovereign doesn't have the traditional ground balance knob,excuse me the Sovereign can be ground balanced in all metal,which requires no setting of a ground control knob.By the way in pinpoint there is no ground balance it is disabled. Good Luck Ron

 

[Critterhunter]

Meter? Yes! If you can hear it on the GT you'll see the right number for it. They're right, this machine has a more solid ID lock than any detector I've used, including the Explorer. You'll hear a lot of Explorer guys (and other machines for that matter) say rely on the sound and ignore the meter. That's true, but mainly because the meter and audio circuits are so far detached from each other on that machine. And, on other machines VDI gets unreliable at depth. With the Sovereign it seems the audio and VDI are tied very close together. Like somebody said, what you hear is what you see for the most part.

Some are big advocates at not using a meter and I can see that on the beach if you are digging everything, but in a trashy park I feel a meter is a must. I don't know about others but my hearing is not so good that I can hear the difference between two targets that say have a 3 to 4 or so seperation in digits. In those cases I rely on the meter to tell me if the target is a very common pull tab number at that site, or a target that is 3 or 4 digits above or below it that isn't a real common tab number and could very well be a gold ring. You can use the audio to further discriminate targets...It may have the same number but a gold ring will sound more smooth, round, warm, and soft compared to trash.

Pinpointing? It's way better than the Explorer's although I'm still not as good yet with the GT as I was my Whites. I feel that's mainly due to lack of experience with it, though, because when I take the time to pinpoint properly I'm usualy right on target.

The older Sovereigns may in fact have some form of auto ground tracking in All Metal. Don't know if they do or not, but what's more important to me on the GT is being able to set a machine at fixed (tracking off) once I've got the tracking set where I want it. I never did care for tracking on any machine because it will track out deep targets as you sweep over them. Suddenly what you heard is gone and might cause you to think it was a ghost signal. I also always feared large targets such as iron might throw tracking way off your constantly sweeping over them. The only place a live tracking would be critical is in VERY rough changing ground conditions where the ground minerals are constantly changing from one extreme to the other. In those cases, which are very rare, tracking is going to give you more depth than fixed if the ground changes that much.

From what little testing I've done in the field on my GT it seems discriminate goes deeper than pinpoint as I can't hear some really deep targets in pinpoint. It might not be true on other models. I'm curious to see if All Metal fixed will get deeper than discriminate but right now I haven't tested that to be sure. In either case, the Sovereign doesn't need a ground balance in discrimination mode because BBS and FBS machines don't filter the ground out like most other (VLF) machines. It only needs it in All Metal since this mode isn't ignoring the ground signal like discriminate. Don't confuse machines that don't have a ground balance with the Minelabs. Those machines are normaly set at an averaged ground setting at the factory which can't be changed unless you open them up to adjust it, if that's even possible on some. Or, they have an auto tracking circuit that can't be turned off. But, as said, ground balance doesn't exist on a Sovereign/Explorer/Etrac in discriminate mode because they don't need it to achieve best depth like other machines do.

While on the subject of the Explorer/Etrac, I think I've finally ran across a valid explaination why the Sovereign seems to get deeper and run smoother for some people at some locations. I've seen several mention this in old and new threads and I'm sure it came down to BBS versus FBS technology but never had a theory why. Somebody said they think the more/higher frequencies the FBS machines have causes them to be more prone to electrical interference and/or signal reflection from ground minerals. That's about the best guess I've heard so far.

I've also found it curious that a lot of threads on older Sovereigns talk of trouble with interference from nearby machines, power lines, or electrical noise. I was expecting the worst with the GT but I'm finding this thing is no worse than my Whites around those things. I've never had to take it out of noise band 2, either, and don't want to because I hear that band gives more matching VDI numbers to older Sovereigns in the middle scale where nickles are. Noise band 1 changes them slightly from what I hear. Maybe the GT has better shielding in it?

As far as the GT and the older Sovereign having the same circuit board goes, yes...I noticed mine says Elite on the processor. But, that doesn't mean they are the exact same boards. Maybe they are doing something along the lines of Dixie Metal Detectors with their performance tune up where it gives the Sovereign a bit more depth? I've read a lot of people say with older Sovereigns you sometimes can't get real deep coins to climb all the way up to 180 on the meter but on the GT they mostly do. I've also read that the GT tends to be a bit more deep/sensitive. I can say in my limited time with one thus far I'm finding it to be true- that as long as I can hear a really deep target, even if it is at the fringes of audio, the meter will lock on to the proper ID. I've yet to wiggle the coil over a fringe target that I could hardly hear yet the meter wasn't able to lock onto.