Paul from the CA central valley spotted some used Metrotechs for sale in Santa Cruz CA C.L. add. Since the seller was selling "FOB Santa Cruz" (wasn't interested in boxing and shipping them), I agreed to go get them for Paul. Since I'm close to S. Cruz.
These Metrotech 220 models came out in 1963 I believe. And they looked exactly like this (the body style, color, coil, etc...). Except these had a curious sticker on each of them that says: "Curt Fisher Underground Explorations". Was there ever a connection between the Fisher Co. and Metrotech Co ?
And once I got them in my possession, I can see there's a date on the serial # exterior tag plate, which matches a date stamped on the inside: 1971 and 1972 respectively for these. I was sort of bummed, hoping that I was buying the earlier 1960's machines.
At some time in the run of this company, they stopped selling for purposes of hobbyists, and only sell for industrial purposes (pipe locating, etc....) . These were popular for beach hunting in So. CA back in the 1960s, and were popular in CW hunting back then too. I've never actually seen one in action. so I had hoped to get one of these fired up. But I'm not able to do so. Hopefully Paul can get them going with his technical wizardry skills.
Also recently I picked up 3 old compass machines for myself. It was a 77b, and 91b, and a Magnum 240 (a vlf/tr). I didn't really care for the 91b or the vlf/tr, but they just came as a set of 3. I just got them to obtain the 77b. So far I've only been able to get the 240 fired up. And boy does it remind me of how far we've come ! Although Garrett made a superior vlf/tr back in those days (late 1970s), this thing is WIMPY. Seems to peak out in disc. mode at perhaps 5" (if you really listen for the whisper).
The 77b and it's little sister the 91b are circa early to mid 1970s. Interesting I'm seeing that the 77b is a little different than other 77b's I've had. The darker green one in my pix is an old one I had lying around (yet I lacked a coil for it). And notice, for instance, that the lighter colored 77b doesn't have a fine tune knob. Hmmm.
Anyhow, enjoy the pix of vintage machines !