Fisher Gold Bug/Teknetics G2 Forum

How do these 2 compare in performance I have a GMT but im itching for another in this price range. It was going to be a Minelab Eureka but Im moving away from from that for now. This is for my wife and she is pretty good at understanding detectors. It for gold detecting

I haven't used the GMT but used the MXT, sorta close. The G2/GB Pro is a way quieter and smoother running machine. Does EXTREMELY good in iron and trash. Some of these guys will jump in here soon that will testify. If you have questions feel free to contact me. I will send you a PM. Thanks!

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whylee
How do these 2 compare in performance I have a GMT but im itching for another in this price range. It was going to be a Minelab Eureka but Im moving away from from that for now. This is for my wife and she is pretty good at understanding detectors. It for gold detecting

Hi whylee-----Although it's been some time back, my wife & I both owned/used GMT's.---They were good enough gold machines but somehow just didn't "click" with us.----We got Tesoro Lobo ST's and liked them much better.----We now both have G2's and we both LOVE them (for a bunch of reasons).----You are probably aware of this but I'll say it anyway---in addition to excellent performance, these are things I would consider when comparing these two detectors: GMT 3.9 lbs, G2 2.8 lbs.-----GMT 48 khz, G2 19khz-----GMT (eight) AA batteries, G2 (one) 9v-----GMT 2 yr. warranty, G2 5 yr. warranty.-----GMT disc mode (no), G2 disc mode (yes)------Weight is definitely a factor to consider when swinging long hrs. in the gold fields, also, it's nice to have a disc. mode for those times you come on old home sites, etc. out there.------If I were considering a gold machine, it would be the G2, GBSE or the GB II (in that order).-----Truth be known, any of these four mentioned machines would make very good gold detectors. (IMHO)------------Del



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 10:24AM by D&P-OR.

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whylee
How do these 2 compare in performance I have a GMT but im itching for another in this price range.

I've found the GMT to work well. It is not what I would personally pick as a 'nugget only' detector pick (that being a model w/o discrimination). The Gold Bug, original, and Gold Bug II are two models I also like.

Out of the other All Metal ONLY detectors that have been around my personal #1 favorite is a Tesoro Diablo µMAX. They are difficult to find, and that's for good reason. Once they settle into the hands of an avid nugget hunter, they are not parted with.

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whylee
It was going to be a Minelab Eureka but Im moving away from from that for now.

In my opinion, you can keep on moving as I didn't find it to be that impressive a nugget detector, when compared with the rest, and I also don't like the weight and balance of the Eureka, either.

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whylee
This is for my wife and she is pretty good at understanding detectors.

Since you mentioned initially that you own and use a GMT, naturally the first questions that came to my mind were these:

Are you satisfied with your GMT?

Has your wife tried the GMT?

If so, what does she think of the the GMT as a regular-use nugget-shooter?

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whylee
It for gold detecting.

Both the Gold Bug II and White's GMT are noted winners for nugget shooting. They each have some strengths and they each have their following. If I set out to purchase an All Metal ONLY nugget hunting detector I would first look for a choice condition Tesoro Diablo µMAX.

If I couldn't find one my next search would be for an original Fisher Gold Bug. From there, and with the two choices you asked about facing me, I might toss a coin in the air and call-it. Otherwise, my first preference would be for the GMT.

Now, if you are also looking for a multi-purpose detector that has a Discriminate mode as well as an All Metal mode, then your options are many. If I limit my choices to only those models in production today, I would consider the White's MXT or MXT Pro, the Teknetics T2, and the Fisher Gold Bug Pro/DP or same-circuitry Teknetics G2.

With the White's I'd only get the stock 950 coil and then personally add the 5.3 Eclipse (6½" diameter) concentric coil. Why? I haven't had better results with their elliptical DD by comparison. With the Teknetics or Fisher models, the 11" BiAxial DD is a light weight and useful coil for coverage and maybe a bit more depth, and their 5" DD coil is a killer for working in and around brush and rocks (as trash for non-nugget use).

So, since this is the GB/G2 Forum I'll limit my excitement over the G2 for other uses and just say that the Gold Bug II had a pretty sharp mind behind the design. So did the White's Gold Master Tracker. Matter of fact, that also applies to the great Tesoro Diablo µMAX ... and on to the Discriminating multi-purpose models, such as White's MXT platform and the current G2/Gold Bug Pro/DP.

It's really up to you to decide between a model with or without a Discriminate mode, and then involve your wife in the discussion making. Getting a model that just doesn't fit or suit her probably isn't the way to go.

Monte

---

"Your Eyes, the ONLY 100% accurate form of Discrimination!"

Stinkwater Wells
Monte V. Berry Sr.
monte@stinkwaterwells.com
(503)481-8147
My main use favorites in order by brand:
White's
MXT Pro w/6½",
VX3 w/950
Tesoro
.. Replacement coming ..
Teknetics
Omega w/5½x9¾
G2 w/5" DD

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Monte

Quote
whylee
How do these 2 compare in performance I have a GMT but im itching for another in this price range.

I've found the GMT to work well. It is not what I would personally pick as a 'nugget only' detector pick (that being a model w/o discrimination). The Gold Bug, original, and Gold Bug II are two models I also like.

Out of the other All Metal ONLY detectors that have been around my personal #1 favorite is a Tesoro Diablo µMAX. They are difficult to find, and that's for good reason. Once they settle into the hands of an avid nugget hunter, they are not parted with.

Quote
whylee
It was going to be a Minelab Eureka but Im moving away from from that for now.

In my opinion, you can keep on moving as I didn't find it to be that impressive a nugget detector, when compared with the rest, and I also don't like the weight and balance of the Eureka, either.

Quote
whylee
This is for my wife and she is pretty good at understanding detectors.

Since you mentioned initially that you own and use a GMT, naturally the first questions that came to my mind were these:

Are you satisfied with your GMT?

Has your wife tried the GMT?

If so, what does she think of the the GMT as a regular-use nugget-shooter?

Quote
whylee
It for gold detecting.

Both the Gold Bug II and White's GMT are noted winners for nugget shooting. They each have some strengths and they each have their following. If I set out to purchase an All Metal ONLY nugget hunting detector I would first look for a choice condition Tesoro Diablo µMAX.

If I couldn't find one my next search would be for an original Fisher Gold Bug. From there, and with the two choices you asked about facing me, I might toss a coin in the air and call-it. Otherwise, my first preference would be for the GMT.

Now, if you are also looking for a multi-purpose detector that has a Discriminate mode as well as an All Metal mode, then your options are many. If I limit my choices to only those models in production today, I would consider the White's MXT or MXT Pro, the Teknetics T2, and the Fisher Gold Bug Pro/DP or same-circuitry Teknetics G2.

With the White's I'd only get the stock 950 coil and then personally add the 5.3 Eclipse (6½" diameter) concentric coil. Why? I haven't had better results with their elliptical DD by comparison. With the Teknetics or Fisher models, the 11" BiAxial DD is a light weight and useful coil for coverage and maybe a bit more depth, and their 5" DD coil is a killer for working in and around brush and rocks (as trash for non-nugget use).

So, since this is the GB/G2 Forum I'll limit my excitement over the G2 for other uses and just say that the Gold Bug II had a pretty sharp mind behind the design. So did the White's Gold Master Tracker. Matter of fact, that also applies to the great Tesoro Diablo µMAX ... and on to the Discriminating multi-purpose models, such as White's MXT platform and the current G2/Gold Bug Pro/DP.

It's really up to you to decide between a model with or without a Discriminate mode, and then involve your wife in the discussion making. Getting a model that just doesn't fit or suit her probably isn't the way to go.

Monte

I am satisfied with the GMT and the wife likes it because she does not like wearing the headphones. I own a whites TDI a Garrett Infinium, and a Minelab GPX5000 for my main prospecting detectors. Im really looking for another VLF detector that is lightweight for packing into the back country. The GMT fits that bill but im open to anything that may be a better performer and I hear so much about the GB's and GB ll's I thought about trying one out but only if it is comparable to the GMT, I just dont want to go down in performance.

Gosh whylee... you are sure doing a lot of posting on the various forums: if your wife will go
for the GMT and it also fits the bill for your back country prospecting... you now have enough $
invested in detectors and now need to get out and go for the gold.

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Monte

Out of the other All Metal ONLY detectors that have been around my personal #1 favorite is a Tesoro Diablo µMAX. They are difficult to find, and that's for good reason. Once they settle into the hands of an avid nugget hunter, they are not parted with.


Monte

Diablo uMax, one of my all-time favorite metal detectors. A few years ago I had the chance to pick up a good used one for about $350, but was feeling financially tight at the time, so resisted the impulse to buy it .......knowing that forever after I would kick myself in the butt for not having sprung for it. Am still kicking.......

--Dave J.

Oh Dave-----Just start wearing sandals (there softer)!! -----Think I'll go on "the hunt" for a Diablo!!! --------Del

What males the diablo umax score so high on your list ? I have one and hope to have it tuned up before august..

Some people judge a machine by how many "features" it has. And Marketing dept. loves to advertise features because they look good in print. Features create headaches for engineering dept. because first they have to design them into the product, and from then on out the engineers get dragged into customer service problems relating to the features.

I like stark simplicity. Whatever's essential, do that right. And to heck with the rest. (Of course marketing dept. also plays a role in what gets designed, since they're the ones who have to sell it.) I don't like gadgets. Don't own a television, computer games, phone answering machine, cellphone, iPod, stereo, GPS..... do own a $15 pocket calculator that has hardly changed in 20 years and even a couple of slide rules. And (as you can see) I do use computers as a communications tool.

The Diablo Micromax was designed as a (then) state-of-the-art low end but good-performing gold machine, stripped down to bare essentials. Its only "feature" was switchable ground balance settings for checking hot rocks or following streaks of magnetite by ear-- a very useful feature if you learn how to use it, and not available on any other machine even today.

Simple, very light weight, easy to use, relatively free of rude surprises and bad habits, not the hottest machine at the time but close to it. There was nothing there to get marketing dept. pumped up, just a basic tool done extraordinarily right, there wasn't really any way of explaining that in ad copy (and the ad itself was so badly written I cringed to read it). They only way to discover the character of the thing was to get curious and buy it despite the lousy advertising (or because of word-of-mouth recommendation), and then go use it for gold prospecting. ........That's why it didn't sell back when Jack was manufacturing it, and it's also why people who got their hands on one anyhow won't let go of 'em.

--Dave J.

Mr. Monte and Mr. David J. Read this and I got a Diablo MicroMax...
Bought it through Hal T. when they first came out.... I love it. I keep it safe. I
carefully used it with the accessory 5-inch circular concentric and/or the 3x7-inch
DD. When I was younger and able I took it on several overnight hikes in the
Eugene range near Winnemucca. Whomever designed it did a great Job js

Care to try and explaine the follow the streak part a little.... Only nuggets I found were with my gmt but I have diablo also.....
Biggest problem is getting comfortable with a detector to use it enough to find gold...and finding gold can take a long time for that first nugget...

If you have visual readout of ground iron oxide content you can "follow the streak" by paying attention to the visual display. Most of my newer FTP-Fisher designs that have an all metals autotune mode incorporate that feature.

On machines that have manual ground balance, you can intentionally throw the ground balance off and listen to the ground noise: however, by listening to the ground, you're not finding much gold.

With the Diablo uMax there are two ground balance settings, one of which you deliberately offset either to cancel hot rocks or to make black sand sound off (which is often the same thing). You can search with your main setting and periodically switch momentarily to the offset GB setting to listen to the ground noise, which will be louder in the black sand streaks. It's a feature that takes some skill to use effectively: most customers probably ignored it.

Another feature which to my knowledge was unique to the Diablo uMax was the way the sensitivity control operated. It's a gain control which is also a speed control-- gain inversely proportional to speed. So in the mild ground you could both crank the gain up, and slow the response down for even more sensitivity, all with a single knob. In the bad dirt you need both faster response and lower gain to cut through the ground noise-- again, on the same knob with the Diablo uMax.

The Diablo uMax is not the hottest VLF gold machine out there, but it's competitive. Extreme hots isn't always usable and in the hands of an inexperienced customer is often a disadvantage. The Diablo uMax is an easy machine to learn and master, and in the hands of many customers that's gonna count for more than sheer blazing hots. A diehard serious prospector is probably gonna own something or somethings fancier and more expensive than the Diablo uMax, but even for that sort of person the Diablo uMax is a great backup machine because if you've ever been familiar with it, and haven't swung it in 5 years, the thing is so instinctive that in 3 minutes you can pick it up and be right back in the groove. And it's a great machine to loan to a newbie beeping companion, once they get the hang of ground balancing.

Responding to Parrot (who may have been setting me up?), the guy who designed it was Dave J., which is why it incorporates so much of my design philosophy, and just might have something to do with why I like it so much. Jack gave me a pretty free hand on it. The Lobo ST (a major revision of the Diablo uMax platform) was a good machine, too, but it never clicked with me the way the Diablo uMax did.

BTW, the trick of offsetting ground balance to check hot rocks was taught me by Ed Coogan, who at last report is still beeping the Central California Mother Lode.

* * * * * * *

Funny, this is an Teknetics-Fisher forum and here I am praising a Tesoro unit from 15 years ago. I get away with it because you can't buy one, probably not even on Ebay. If you want the latest gold machine from the same engineer incorporating quite a bit of the same overall design philosophy, something you can actually buy, and it's 21st century up-to-date ....... well, that would be the GB/G2 machines, and this is the forum.

--Dave J.

As I said in my other post.. I want to know what makes machines unique..and why one might pick one over the other... No neccessarily what makes them best...I knew there was something that made the diablo different and even though I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed at times....(I sold off my original diablo 6 months after I bought it and had to buy another one later on..)
And while I prefer to drywash I need to try and figure out ow to follow the black sand a little more to see if it helps some....I know a spot where I get 1-2 grains of gold every day. Now I'm not the most active drywasher user... But thats still better than the 1-2 hundred coins a day I average doing bus stops.
1-2 hundred coins usally average about 2-3 dollars.

Dave J. --

I appreciate your participation on this forum. Thank you.

Steve

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Minelab Explorer SE Pro, Fisher Gold Bug Pro (DP)
Garrett ProPointer
Lesche 38D "King of Spades"

Norman, OK