Blisstool comparison

[triplehooked]

I guess there really isn't any comparison. If the videos and claims I've read are true. 20" on a gold ring?!!? What technology does Bulgaria of all places have in a VLF machine that others do not!? I don't mean to offend these folks, in fact, if these claims are true, then bravo. But I'm curious to see what this machine has that other manufacturers who have been in the game much longer do not. Light weight, extreme depth, discrminates, decent price, heck even a decent battery life.... Seems too good to be true! It must cause cancer or something....

 

[hershey1]

Maybe their regulations are not as strict as the FCC rules our USA companies has to comply with. I am just guessing but does seem to be a big difference. HH

 

[Barry NY]

Hi triplehooked - all I can personally attest to is what you see from the Blisstool USA videos - there is NO "if" in "if these claims are true"...
As more people get the machine more reports and videos are coming in.
The Blisstool's lack of digital processing and TID analysis and color screens and bells and whistles allows it to deliver pure unadulterated detecting power.
It has nothing to do with FCC rules/regs - the other top manufacturers (Minelab and XP) - are both non-US companies...

Here is a very valid post from a very well respected experienced detectorist from the other day:

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?89,1777822,page=1
It was a slow go...
Posted by: Daniel Tn
Date: September 15, 2012 11:57PM Registered: 7 years ago
Posts: 539

I remember things didn't start to click with me til I had surpassed the 50 hr mark on mine. On the UK forums, they were saying that to just go slow with it, give it time, and then it would start to pay off. The main thing was learning how the settings related to one another. You have to resist the temptation of cranking the gain up on it....I learned that one the experience way. It goes plenty deep with gain on 0-1....it surpassed all other VLF's I've ever used. Even with the other ones that I could run much higher gain settings on. The second thing was learning the sound. You are right, it wasn't what I was expecting when it came to iron rejection either. I was expecting broken signals or no signal at all on discriminated out iron. Instead I learned that it would just beep on the iron and you had to discern between smooth/mellow tones of non ferrous targets and the more abrupt/raspy signal of iron. The more I used it steady, the better my ears got in tune with it...but I found if I missed a little while of using it...I was right back to digging all signals that repeated, til I got an ear for it again.

There will be more secrets revealed with it as people get more time with them in the field. It's about to be prime time to get out and hunt now. Heck I don't even have a detector anymore but I still come to see what's going on and what folks are saying.

I will say the Bliss may be a VLF but it sure has pulse machine characteristics....and it has VLF characteristics as well. You wont find a pulse machine with the sensitivity to micro size gold as the Bliss has. Not even with the $5,000 GPX from Minelab. But very rarely do you find a VLF that can handle the bad soil that the Bliss is handling.

 

[triplehooked]

Hi Barry, thanks for the response and info. I've read every post on that forum, btw... I understand that the start of my thread sounds a bit slanted towards disbelief, but that isn't my intent. The videos I have seen so far leave very little to argue its validity. What is hard to comprehend is why haven't any of the big name companies engineered something similar to the Blisstool, that was my main point. As you stated, maybe their focus is on TID's, color screens, etc.... I'll be interested to hear from the BT owners once they become more accustomed to the machine's language.

 

[Salida]

Don't be enticed by all the hype. And I would not spend
$1000 to find out if any of it is true or not. If the machine is
fiction it will all eventually come out in the wash. Just my opinion.
Salida

 

[jimmyk]

You've been trashing the Blisstool and several forums. Why not just wait and see if it pans out. I'll have one soon and will be more than glad to post my results, but I'm not making any judgements until I have one in hand. I hunted with a guy yesterday that has one and with his limited time on the machine he's convinced it's the real deal. Time will tell.

jimmyk in Missouri

 

[Barry NY]

Hi Salida.
I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion. BUT, in order to have an opinion you need to base that opinion in some real facts.
So I'm just asking here - what facts do you have to proclaim "Don't be enticed by all the hype"? Do you know something everyone else doesn't or are you a detecting guru? If so, please discuss. If not - your post added absolutely nothing.

And, if you are in the market for a new machine (as you mentioned a few days ago) - you probably shouldn't spend $1000 - maybe you should spend in the +/- $500 range as a step up from your Ace 250...

Thanks JimmyK - that is the correct attitude. Use it, learn it, like it or don't.

 

[Salida]

What I am suggesting has always been something I have lived by and has never let me down. If it sounds too
good to be true it probably is. As for a correct attitude, that is a matter of perspective, I'm sure YOU of all
people can understand that. Use it, learn it, like it or don't. Don't jump into the lake just because everyone else is.
But you have a majot investment so I don't recond you want to hear that. Facts? No facts, just caution from having
been burned many times by salesmen/women. NOw chill out and have a beer. We'll all see how it pans out in the long haul.
Salida

 

[Barry NY]

Hey - giving alcohol to minors or animals is against the law!!!

 

[BR549]

I bought a blisstool last september from the factory.I bought the V2.
Had to sell it after the first of the year.Just couldnt swing it after injurying my wrist.Had to sell other machnes also.
I can tell u that since i've been in this hobby back in 1990,I have never owned anything as deep as this.
No hype !!The depth that mine got was very impressive.It did take some getting use to but it was worth it.I even bought the 7 inch coil with it.
Mega deep also.
Miss using it.

 

[old lobo]

Barry, If you notice, the cat has the t.v. remote control. That cat can have anything he wants if Salida wants to watch his favorite programs on t.v..

 

[targets]

the problem is long established companies become lazy and complacent and then somebody like XP pops up and grabs a large market share ,because they go the extra mile to become established .this has happened in the UK where they have grabbed a large chunk of the market to the detriment of US brands.
same with Blisstool ,they went the extra mile .their machines have the coil specially set up for each individual machine .theres your answer

 

[glasartisan]

Your exactly right targets.When I bought the 15 inch coil at the same time I purchased the bliss they tell you each coil has to be tuned to its perticular detector.Knowing that I was willing to wait the extra time that it might take to do that calibration.That will be interesting to see if they share that with Barry and Carter when they get to do the factory tour.Why cant the american detector companies do the same thing.Oh yes, its a quanities bottom line not QUALITY like it should be. Thanks, Steve

 

[Barry NY]

Yes - the individual tuning is true. And, even if you get an additional coil second hand - the factory can actually tell you where you should set your FREQ dial once they know your machine serial # and the coil serial #. That's very precise stuff..

 

[Tin Fin]

I have ordered a Blisstool, but I'm not giving up my Excal or Sovereign GT either. For detectors, I would much rather reach conclusions based on personal experience. Learning from others is fine, speculating is fine to an extent, but learning the tool and drawing my own conclusions is what matters most to me.

Metal detecting IS speculating to no small extent. Removing all the high-end processors, screens that can't be seen in sunlight, sub-menus and such, and getting back to basic "user running the machinery" instead of the machinery running the user isn't all bad either. I don't mind that I will have to use dials and switches to tune the thing - it doesn't bother me that I have to understand how the machine works, and how its controls interact with each other in order to tune it to whatever conditions I am in. It's not bad having auto settings or presets either. But I do think there is something to computer "over processing" sometimes.

A new machine has been designed, and I'm interested in finding out, for my self, what it will do or not. That's the bottom line for me.

Rather than saying what it will or won't do, I decided to find out for my self by getting one. I'm sure I will have to take a lot of notes to learn how best to use this tool. But I'm not going to say that the manufacturing claims are false, or true, just because I haven't used one yet. I wasn't using and MD when the Excalibur first came out, but I bet there were arguments about what it could or couldn't do before many people had one in their own hands, struggling with grasping the how and why of settings, soil conditions, iron, etc.

It's nice to find out about the tuned coils too. Barry, thanks for your part in bringing the BT to the USA.

 

[Barry NY]

Sure thing Tim. We wrote an American version of a User Guide to help people understand that setting inter-relationship better - published here for download:

Blisstool User Guide

 

[triplehooked]

I'm in total agreement with you Tin. The real test will be how your personal hunting style and preferences interact with any given detector. I have owned a few very nice, deep detectors, but didn't like them either the due to the tones or adjustments, so they had to go! From what I've read, I think this detector will be a great "tool" in anyone's arsenal for the deeper targets. However, I think that I will stick with another detector for the shallower ( by shallower I mean less than 10") targets that separate ferrous from non-ferrous and help disc. out some of the non-ferrous trash via tid. I dig enough pull tabs as it is.... I think target is spot on with Blisstool's gain in performance by matching each machine specifically to the coil. I would attribute this to many detectors' variability in performance, being either a "hot" machine compared to another of similar model that is just "ok". I understand this probably isn't cost effective to most companies compared to the performance gained, but I'm happy to see a company feels it is worth doing. The American user guide is very helpful. Thanks everyone for the input and info.

 

[Frank in NH]

Barry what will the procedure be when the small coil comes out later? How will it be tuned to my existing Blisstool i am using now?

 

[Tin Fin]

triplehooked,

That it's one tool in the arsenal - that's the way I'm looking at it.

I don't go for every new machine - but this one has me curious. Part of the reason has to do with where I am detecting - private family property, that is forest/flood plain - and what I'm looking for; more on that later but only if I actually find it/them. But I can dig big, deep holes on my own land. Some of this is sandy deposits from river flooding, some of it is rocky hills, some of it is just hard digging with clay, rocks and roots. I have to clean out surface targets first, wheedling my way through undergrowth and brambles, most of which is trash in the way of spent shotgun shells and other cartridges, screw cap tops, pull tabs and can slaw. For sure, there will be a learning curve and frustrations on my part figuring out what I need to do, why, and how.

By the way, I do have an amp lifer for the GT - and using that does get me some deeper targets by at least a few inches. I haven't done enough with it to say how much deeper in more than only one location, but in that location it is about three inches deeper so far. I haven't taken this to the family land yet, so I don't know if it gets any deeper in the soils there or not. But this too, is another tool in the arsenal.

But you have it right triplehooked, it's a tool, and I want to see how it will suit my purposes or not.

 

[Barry NY]

Hi Frank. We are not sure yet on the answer to the 7" coil matching up question.
We'll ask in person when we see the owner in a few weeks.