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Ode to the grandest VLF platform

argyle

New member
By the time the Minelab PI's came out, nobody cared any longer about our greatest range of VLF's, most of us were too busy becoming SD mad to bother.
Except, I never let a good dog die. So I stayed in touch with my older units and bought new ones, to compare, use, and get them set up properly along side my SD's.

How good is the Eureka Gold on hot ground compared to other detectors? That question is quite often asked by those who have a true want for that knowledge, and they deserve a straight answer.
Utilising both tracking speeds, when well set up and with the right coils to match the frequency in use, and the right add-ons to make them sing ...They are deeper, more versatile, more sensitive and far easier to use on hot ground than some self styled experts would have anyone believe.
But I do not think that it is intentional, or misleading on purpose ....they simply do not know, as most have only heard one for a short time, either wrongly set up, or may even feel obliged to take a stab at repeating old wrongful opinions.

Across the entire range of Minelab gold VLF's, there has always been confusion over a proper threshold setting.
Some big gold hitters maintain the score running with no threshold at all, but, many signals are missed, that's fact. Successful or not.
The often quoted 'just audible' setting of a threshold was one of the main reasons people put VLF's down. Both in the user manuals, by dealers, users who had no idea but still put it into print. Culprits.
The proper threshold on hot ground is a nice and high full sound, stable and rock solid. Allowing the highest sensitivity they can muster. Causing lovely repeatable dropouts in the threshold on deep signals on heavy ground. Missed by a mile with that 'mosquito buzz setting', the worst throwaway line in detecting.


Here is a rundown on the Minelab VLF models, from before the inception of the Eureka platform, the start of that platform, and our soon to be discontinued leader of the VLF's.

It may be of slight help to those who own or are looking for a gold VLF that does a hell of a lot more than just tickle itself into girl-scout dirt.

Goldseekers 15000:

Minelab bought an Australian company that had manufactured two decent early VLF's, they then went on to produce the Goldseekers model in the early to mid 1980's.
Although the balance had more drift than the later models, they had the most proficient ground balance put on to a detector at that time.
They ate our old A2b's.
Balance was utilised by depressing and holding a handle button while adjusting the GB dial.
Around 8khz, very tough metal box, 8" round stock coil plus an 11" round.
These started the 5 pin coil connector range.

Eldorado MK1:

A low frequency unit, metal box, looking exactly like the Goldseekers only with green on the box in place of red. No disc, no nonsense, threshold based, and a very stable ground balance.
A most underrated unit. They cruised over hot ground a little better than the Goldseekers because they were slightly less sensitive, but held their balance and threshold level a little more stable.
They took the large coils well, and were on par with any later model Minelab gold VLF on big deep gold in hot ground.
Not very sensitive on the very small gold though.
You could size deep coins with this unit too, and the audio and pitch was so good on the machine that you could judge junk against coins by sound far better than any coin discriminating detector on the market at that time, and half of them today.

Eureka Ace Dual:

This was the one!

This green box machine will still out detect any current model Fisher, Whites, Tesoro or Garrett VLF units on truly mineralised ground today. Deep large, shallow and small. That's how good they were.
Carrying a twin frequency choice of 8khz and 20khz, they still have the most stable manual ground balance of any VLF ever produced. They were nice and sensitive but still handled heavy ground manually like a champ, a real pleasure to work with.
Mounted with a half rounded clip, they could be set up on a straight shaft, upside down on the top of the shaft directly in front of the hand grip, so the ground balance dial was in your right index fingers range. You could ride that ground balance to your hearts content.

Eldorado MK11:

Another plastic box unit.
Yellow in colour and running in 8khz. Made as the cheapest basic gold VLF just to fill the entry level stage.
Minelab's worst ever detector. All they had to do was make the ground balance solid and unwavering. Instead, we got the most drifting ground balance ever made, and I mean drifting! And an extremly broad response, that when combined with it's lack of sensitivity, made for a very sour unit. Completely useless for any type of detecting.


GT16000:

Here starts our Auto ground balance and Auto tracking, along with a microproccesor.
8" round stock coil. Later the 6" little sensitive round and 11".
Mounted on the pole with a half rounded clip on.
Brilliantly designed units and so far ahead of other manufacturers detectors that it simply left all other units, bar the manual balancing Minelab's, in shock.
Although the Auto was breakthrough, some of us preferred the Dual Ace later on as we had full control on running positive balance with them.
But a delight the GT still was.




FT16000:

The FT were similar to the GT, with a slightly faster tracking speed. Some did not like the faster balance, but I preffered it, as the proccessor seemed to function quicker than the GT, and big coils on hot ground seemed to suit it's pickup on ground changes, with a nicer sharpness to threshold dropouts .... and those were the main signal we were looking for.
Later the FT would be marketed to America as the Klondike.

Both the GT and FT had a discriminator on board. But only escaped mental patients would use the function.


Some very impressive large aftermarket coils were made to fit the entire 5 pin range, and then the4 pin series, thanks to men like Barrie Johnson, Bob Hollins and a few others.
They also started the spurn of aftermarket signal enhancers and modifications, because we finally had units worthy of mods, thanks to men like Ken Roberts and quite a few others that had cut their teeth modding early Whites and Garretts. They helped us to tame the hot ground with the 5 pin range of Minelab's.


XT17000:

Blue plastic box, the first to slide into a stem mounted clip. The second twin frequency unit, this time in 6.4khz and 32khz. Tone dial on the rear being adjustable with a flathead.
A nice tracking speed, lovely sensitivity, but you could do more with this unit by the tone dial, and it helped to run a more varying threshold.
The coil range starts to really open up from here on in, with the stock 8" round, 6" round, 10" elliptical, 11" round, 17"elliptical. Big round West Australian coils, the list never ended

Goldstriker:

Red plastic box, Similar to the XT17000. But only ran in 32khz and had the tone dial on the face plate. 10" elliptical stock coil.
They played with the signal responses on these models, running a boost, coarse and fine. They all seemed to behave a little differently that the boost, normal, enhance on the other models.
I felt they handled a bit too delicately than the 17000's in a few areas overall, and weren't nearly as good a unit.

XT18000: Version 1

This early model carried, for the first time, 3 frequencys. 6.4, 20 and 60khz. With the coil choices available on the 4pins, stock 10"x5" or round 8" depending when and where you bought it, the 11"round. The Coiltek 14.5 inch all terrain beauty was and still is, the best large coil for both the 5 and 4 pins ever produced.

This first version was by far the most sensitive to date, it had an immaculate ground tracking speed and smoother everything. Nice loud audio.
The 60 kHz was so good on these you could actually feel it tickling it's way into to first inch of ground.
Unfortunately they would blank out over surface targets or on heavy ironstone outcropping. But this was soon to be changed.

The tone dials have always been a bugbear. Those dials can cause added drift on the thresholds audio level. Slight, but annoying.
I always felt a solid fixed, but still changeable tone control, would have been a better option.

XT18000: Version 11

Minelab employed a fellow from overseas to work with them. He improved on the original unit, did incredible things with the internals and stopped this blanking out. This unit became the most stable of the platform to date, in every way. A threshold so stable it was physical.
This model would later have a major cosmetic and battery system change, along with a twin tracking speed, to became the Eureka Gold.

Golden Hawk:

They tried something different with this machine. Placing it on an supposedly ergonomic shaft, looking very much like a version of an mini SD. Mounting the SD looking box clipped under and onto the handgrip. A heavy battery hooked on via a lead in the same way the SD did, belt mounted. All dismantled and folded away in a two foot long zip up carry bag.
One lot of accessories, belt pouches, bag etc. came in kaiki, another type you could get came in camo.
The same 3 frequency's as the 18000, but with a double tracking speed, and a slow and fast recovery switch. Neither of which seemed to show any real difference in either setting.
These had a terrible audio. And came with a dull 8" stock coil. The accessory 15" black coil you could buy for them was probably the worst coil Minelab ever made, a really bad coil. An absolute stinker.

Most of the units above ran an enhanced, fine or boost signal setting. Apart from the good normal setting. All of those settings other than normal, were particularly bad to use. Enhance upset balance timings, fine was a horrible little sound, and boost would more often that not send the unit into spasms if a crow flew overhead.

Eureka Gold:

So long old mate. You were the greatest of your breed.
Something new and improved always comes along ....I just hope and trust it will serve the memory of your kind with distinction.
 
Hi Argyle , that was a most informative read :)

Did you ever get to use any of the old Whites Goldmasters or a Tesoro Diablo Umax ? like to hear your thoughts if you did please .

Cheers
Bobby.
 
fredm said:
Thanks for the tips and the memories...
fred

That's okay Fred. For some reason I just felt like sharing them. I'm fitting out a couple of new units at the moment, one for coinage and the other, the same same type of detector, for work on crazy ground in four aeas than I cannot use my PI's on. I hade some success with a cheap pre-set balance non threshold based unit on one of them, so I'd like to go over it with a souped up edition.
I guess I got a bit nostalgic while building them, and wrote this thread up to clear my mind.

Actually I wouldn't mind hearing some tips and memories from you Fred. You've been detecting over West before haven't you? Which areas do you work in the States now and in the past?
 
Bobbylikesgold said:
Hi Argyle , that was a most informative read :)

Did you ever get to use any of the old Whites Goldmasters or a Tesoro Diablo Umax ? like to hear your thoughts if you did please .

Cheers
Bobby.

Yeah Bobby. The very early Whites really had to be modded, and I liked them too, but as most did, I kinda liked the phaarping Deepseeker Garrett with a large coil, then the A2b, much more sensitive, but I kept breaking coil connections and
spent a lot of time and money putting new coils on them. I liked the big coil and used to give them a real hiding, switching down to the smaller sizes when onto a run, actually after the first hit!
The goldmater11 with the small squarish black box was the first high frequency unit I had, wow, but only on very quiet ground. The next VSat improvement was really much better, as we could travel a bit further off the quiet ground and mix it up a bit into the hotter ground. The GM3 was the one though. But by the time I was using it I had virtually finished my obsession with small gold on quiet heaps. Even with the XT 17000 I only held the obsesssion for the higher frequency and small coil for a short time, I preffered to run 6.4khz and large coil once the I could enhance the threshold height with the right amp to suit. I was working with a $3000 overdraft at that time, and with the $15 to $20 a gram we were getting at the time, detecting for larger deeper signals kind of took precedence. Far less producing weeks, but seemed to pay off if you held out.

The tesoro's I used to get from a nice old guy named David Bishop, the dealer up on the border in wodonga. I got many units off him over the years, but were always disappointed in them. Gold Demons, Diablo and Dingo, but not the umax Diablo, I'd given up on them by then.
 
argyle said:
Yeah Bobby. The very early Whites really had to be modded, and I liked them too, but as most did, I kinda liked the phaarping Deepseeker Garrett with a large coil, then the A2b, much more sensitive, but I kept breaking coil connections and
spent a lot of time and money putting new coils on them. I liked the big coil and used to give them a real hiding, switching down to the smaller sizes when onto a run, actually after the first hit!
The goldmater11 with the small squarish black box was the first high frequency unit I had, wow, but only on very quiet ground. The next VSat improvement was really much better, as we could travel a bit further off the quiet ground and mix it up a bit into the hotter ground. The GM3 was the one though. But by the time I was using it I had virtually finished my obsession with small gold on quiet heaps. Even with the XT 17000 I only held the obsesssion for the higher frequency and small coil for a short time, I preffered to run 6.4khz and large coil once the I could enhance the threshold height with the right amp to suit. I was working with a $3000 overdraft at that time, and with the $15 to $20 a gram we were getting at the time, detecting for larger deeper signals kind of took precedence. Far less producing weeks, but seemed to pay off if you held out.

The tesoro's I used to get from a nice old guy named David Bishop, the dealer up on the border in wodonga. I got many units off him over the years, but were always disappointed in them. Gold Demons, Diablo and Dingo, but not the umax Diablo, I'd given up on them by then.

Hey Argle , you made me smile with the above :happy: I still have a GM-11 I bought off a bloke who got it new , he tried it once & gave up , I took it out on hot ground & it howled ' screamed & cried , even tried it at Tibooburra on dead quiet ground where it could not be ground balanced ( they need some mineralisation ) just made moaning noises !
Later I got a small 6" shooter DD to calm it down enough to use it .

Shame you never had the chance to try a Umax Diablo , I to know an area that can't be detected also ' maybe the Umax D with its hot rock extra balance might have a chance :shrug:
I remember David Bishop was selling them back in 1996 .

I'll be looking forward to your future posts .

Bobby.
 
I'll more than gladly stick to my righteous Tesoro Lobo Supertrac any day and in every way--with the GB2 I always carry as a backup. Guaranteed till the day ya I die WOW, can't beat that and used the dragon slayer in the field 1,000s of times and beat all others. BUT detectors ARE like women in many ways as one mans heaven is yet anothers purgatory as I've used them ALMOST ALL,as in quite near every single one over since my Heathkit bfo in 62 to the pulse 5000. Note .....not married or harried so I can buy my toys and go play with the boys all the live long day. First post really sounds like a minelab add--sorry but there have been many MANY righteous units not even mentioned that have been king in the past 51 years a swingn' detectors. My next toy to try is the new GB Pro and away I go.....:detecting:-John
 
You may have missed the gist that It's only written about Minelab's gold VLF range John, and not a comparison to other makes on true hot ground. Sadly the early tesoro range couldn't handle it. The first manual balance Lobo did a bit better than the earlier makes, and the current lobo with its tracking is miles ahead of them, but still cannot track, or operate at any level, on the ground the Minelab VLF'can, even dating back to the first model.
I wasn't writing and add for their units, merely a run down on the models. You'll find a less than glowing report on a couple of them if you re-read it.
Glad to hear you think your lobo is righteous, as they are on quiet ground. Always nice to see a man gell with a machine. A really nice old guy I used to know hit either an 8oz or 10oz, I just can't remember the weight, in a dry quiet creek bed many years ago, and while he couldn't work it on hot ground, he sure loved that lobo.
 
I really liked the Eldorado umax Bobby. Not so much for goldfields, which they seemed to handle ok even with the stock concentric, but I wanted a nice larger DD and kept waiting for one to come out. They were a great little unit. I've been trying to find one again in the last couple of years with no luck. I think It's hard to find them, along with the gold umax, in the States even.
The worst thing about them is the price we've been having to pay here since day one. We were always paying double what we should have been. It was the same even with Minelab's range, especially the PI's, along with every American unit.
I've heard every excuse under the sun, double tax whammy, import duty, exchange rate etc.

But the fact is we've been getting ripped off here the same way we do with mobile phone rates and contracts.
 
Bobbylikesgold said:
argyle said:
Yeah Bobby. The very early Whites really had to be modded, and I liked them too, but as most did, I kinda liked the phaarping Deepseeker Garrett with a large coil, then the A2b, much more sensitive, but I kept breaking coil connections and
spent a lot of time and money putting new coils on them. I liked the big coil and used to give them a real hiding, switching down to the smaller sizes when onto a run, actually after the first hit!
The goldmater11 with the small squarish black box was the first high frequency unit I had, wow, but only on very quiet ground. The next VSat improvement was really much better, as we could travel a bit further off the quiet ground and mix it up a bit into the hotter ground. The GM3 was the one though. But by the time I was using it I had virtually finished my obsession with small gold on quiet heaps. Even with the XT 17000 I only held the obsesssion for the higher frequency and small coil for a short time, I preffered to run 6.4khz and large coil once the I could enhance the threshold height with the right amp to suit. I was working with a $3000 overdraft at that time, and with the $15 to $20 a gram we were getting at the time, detecting for larger deeper signals kind of took precedence. Far less producing weeks, but seemed to pay off if you held out.

The tesoro's I used to get from a nice old guy named David Bishop, the dealer up on the border in wodonga. I got many units off him over the years, but were always disappointed in them. Gold Demons, Diablo and Dingo, but not the umax Diablo, I'd given up on them by then.

Hey Argle , you made me smile with the above :happy: I still have a GM-11 I bought off a bloke who got it new , he tried it once & gave up , I took it out on hot ground & it howled ' screamed & cried , even tried it at Tibooburra on dead quiet ground where it could not be ground balanced ( they need some mineralisation ) just made moaning noises !
Later I got a small 6" shooter DD to calm it down enough to use it .

Shame you never had the chance to try a Umax Diablo , I to know an area that can't be detected also ' maybe the Umax D with its hot rock extra balance might have a chance :shrug:
I remember David Bishop was selling them back in 1996 .

I'll be looking forward to your future posts .

Bobby.
....Talking about David Bishop, anyone remember Bob Murray who lived in Cue...If so, is he still alive???
 
argyle said:
By the time the Minelab PI's came out, nobody cared any longer about our greatest range of VLF's, most of us were too busy becoming SD mad to bother.
Except, I never let a good dog die. So I stayed in touch with my older units and bought new ones, to compare, use, and get them set up properly along side my SD's.

How good is the Eureka Gold on hot ground compared to other detectors? That question is quite often asked by those who have a true want for that knowledge, and they deserve a straight answer.
Utilising both tracking speeds, when well set up and with the right coils to match the frequency in use, and the right add-ons to make them sing ...They are deeper, more versatile, more sensitive and far easier to use on hot ground than some self styled experts would have anyone believe.
But I do not think that it is intentional, or misleading on purpose ....they simply do not know, as most have only heard one for a short time, either wrongly set up, or may even feel obliged to take a stab at repeating old wrongful opinions.

Across the entire range of Minelab gold VLF's, there has always been confusion over a proper threshold setting.
Some big gold hitters maintain the score running with no threshold at all, but, many signals are missed, that's fact. Successful or not.
The often quoted 'just audible' setting of a threshold was one of the main reasons people put VLF's down. Both in the user manuals, by dealers, users who had no idea but still put it into print. Culprits.
The proper threshold on hot ground is a nice and high full sound, stable and rock solid. Allowing the highest sensitivity they can muster. Causing lovely repeatable dropouts in the threshold on deep signals on heavy ground. Missed by a mile with that 'mosquito buzz setting', the worst throwaway line in detecting.


Here is a rundown on the Minelab VLF models, from before the inception of the Eureka platform, the start of that platform, and our soon to be discontinued leader of the VLF's.

It may be of slight help to those who own or are looking for a gold VLF that does a hell of a lot more than just tickle itself into girl-scout dirt.

Goldseekers 15000:

Minelab bought an Australian company that had manufactured two decent early VLF's, they then went on to produce the Goldseekers model in the early to mid 1980's.
Although the balance had more drift than the later models, they had the most proficient ground balance put on to a detector at that time.
They ate our old A2b's.
Balance was utilised by depressing and holding a handle button while adjusting the GB dial.
Around 8khz, very tough metal box, 8" round stock coil plus an 11" round.
These started the 5 pin coil connector range.

Eldorado MK1:

A low frequency unit, metal box, looking exactly like the Goldseekers only with green on the box in place of red. No disc, no nonsense, threshold based, and a very stable ground balance.
A most underrated unit. They cruised over hot ground a little better than the Goldseekers because they were slightly less sensitive, but held their balance and threshold level a little more stable.
They took the large coils well, and were on par with any later model Minelab gold VLF on big deep gold in hot ground.
Not very sensitive on the very small gold though.
You could size deep coins with this unit too, and the audio and pitch was so good on the machine that you could judge junk against coins by sound far better than any coin discriminating detector on the market at that time, and half of them today.

Eureka Ace Dual:

This was the one!

This green box machine will still out detect any current model Fisher, Whites, Tesoro or Garrett VLF units on truly mineralised ground today. Deep large, shallow and small. That's how good they were.
Carrying a twin frequency choice of 8khz and 20khz, they still have the most stable manual ground balance of any VLF ever produced. They were nice and sensitive but still handled heavy ground manually like a champ, a real pleasure to work with.
Mounted with a half rounded clip, they could be set up on a straight shaft, upside down on the top of the shaft directly in front of the hand grip, so the ground balance dial was in your right index fingers range. You could ride that ground balance to your hearts content.

Eldorado MK11:

Another plastic box unit.
Yellow in colour and running in 8khz. Made as the cheapest basic gold VLF just to fill the entry level stage.
Minelab's worst ever detector. All they had to do was make the ground balance solid and unwavering. Instead, we got the most drifting ground balance ever made, and I mean drifting! And an extremly broad response, that when combined with it's lack of sensitivity, made for a very sour unit. Completely useless for any type of detecting.


GT16000:

Here starts our Auto ground balance and Auto tracking, along with a microproccesor.
8" round stock coil. Later the 6" little sensitive round and 11".
Mounted on the pole with a half rounded clip on.
Brilliantly designed units and so far ahead of other manufacturers detectors that it simply left all other units, bar the manual balancing Minelab's, in shock.
Although the Auto was breakthrough, some of us preferred the Dual Ace later on as we had full control on running positive balance with them.
But a delight the GT still was.




FT16000:

The FT were similar to the GT, with a slightly faster tracking speed. Some did not like the faster balance, but I preffered it, as the proccessor seemed to function quicker than the GT, and big coils on hot ground seemed to suit it's pickup on ground changes, with a nicer sharpness to threshold dropouts .... and those were the main signal we were looking for.
Later the FT would be marketed to America as the Klondike.

Both the GT and FT had a discriminator on board. But only escaped mental patients would use the function.


Some very impressive large aftermarket coils were made to fit the entire 5 pin range, and then the4 pin series, thanks to men like Barrie Johnson, Bob Hollins and a few others.
They also started the spurn of aftermarket signal enhancers and modifications, because we finally had units worthy of mods, thanks to men like Ken Roberts and quite a few others that had cut their teeth modding early Whites and Garretts. They helped us to tame the hot ground with the 5 pin range of Minelab's.


XT17000:

Blue plastic box, the first to slide into a stem mounted clip. The second twin frequency unit, this time in 6.4khz and 32khz. Tone dial on the rear being adjustable with a flathead.
A nice tracking speed, lovely sensitivity, but you could do more with this unit by the tone dial, and it helped to run a more varying threshold.
The coil range starts to really open up from here on in, with the stock 8" round, 6" round, 10" elliptical, 11" round, 17"elliptical. Big round West Australian coils, the list never ended

Goldstriker:

Red plastic box, Similar to the XT17000. But only ran in 32khz and had the tone dial on the face plate. 10" elliptical stock coil.
They played with the signal responses on these models, running a boost, coarse and fine. They all seemed to behave a little differently that the boost, normal, enhance on the other models.
I felt they handled a bit too delicately than the 17000's in a few areas overall, and weren't nearly as good a unit.

XT18000: Version 1

This early model carried, for the first time, 3 frequencys. 6.4, 20 and 60khz. With the coil choices available on the 4pins, stock 10"x5" or round 8" depending when and where you bought it, the 11"round. The Coiltek 14.5 inch all terrain beauty was and still is, the best large coil for both the 5 and 4 pins ever produced.

This first version was by far the most sensitive to date, it had an immaculate ground tracking speed and smoother everything. Nice loud audio.
The 60 kHz was so good on these you could actually feel it tickling it's way into to first inch of ground.
Unfortunately they would blank out over surface targets or on heavy ironstone outcropping. But this was soon to be changed.

The tone dials have always been a bugbear. Those dials can cause added drift on the thresholds audio level. Slight, but annoying.
I always felt a solid fixed, but still changeable tone control, would have been a better option.

XT18000: Version 11

Minelab employed a fellow from overseas to work with them. He improved on the original unit, did incredible things with the internals and stopped this blanking out. This unit became the most stable of the platform to date, in every way. A threshold so stable it was physical.
This model would later have a major cosmetic and battery system change, along with a twin tracking speed, to became the Eureka Gold.

Golden Hawk:

They tried something different with this machine. Placing it on an supposedly ergonomic shaft, looking very much like a version of an mini SD. Mounting the SD looking box clipped under and onto the handgrip. A heavy battery hooked on via a lead in the same way the SD did, belt mounted. All dismantled and folded away in a two foot long zip up carry bag.
One lot of accessories, belt pouches, bag etc. came in kaiki, another type you could get came in camo.
The same 3 frequency's as the 18000, but with a double tracking speed, and a slow and fast recovery switch. Neither of which seemed to show any real difference in either setting.
These had a terrible audio. And came with a dull 8" stock coil. The accessory 15" black coil you could buy for them was probably the worst coil Minelab ever made, a really bad coil. An absolute stinker.

Most of the units above ran an enhanced, fine or boost signal setting. Apart from the good normal setting. All of those settings other than normal, were particularly bad to use. Enhance upset balance timings, fine was a horrible little sound, and boost would more often that not send the unit into spasms if a crow flew overhead.

Eureka Gold:

So long old mate. You were the greatest of your breed.
Something new and improved always comes along ....I just hope and trust it will serve the memory of your kind with distinction.
...I have never been a Minelab user until now...I have no idea about coil selection on the above detectors...Are the above machines Concentric & DD coil friendly or just one or the other...
 
argyle said:
I really liked the Eldorado umax Bobby. Not so much for goldfields, which they seemed to handle ok even with the stock concentric, but I wanted a nice larger DD and kept waiting for one to come out. They were a great little unit. I've been trying to find one again in the last couple of years with no luck. I think It's hard to find them, along with the gold umax, in the States even.
The worst thing about them is the price we've been having to pay here since day one. We were always paying double what we should have been. It was the same even with Minelab's range, especially the PI's, along with every American unit.
I've heard every excuse under the sun, double tax whammy, import duty, exchange rate etc.

But the fact is we've been getting ripped off here the same way we do with mobile phone rates and contracts.

The Eldorado Umax has got a good reputation for sure , as you said not so much for the gold fields .
As it runs 10 kHz frequency it would miss many specimens I guess ?

Yep the price rip-offs still continue & so do the BS excuses why .
 
Did Bob Murray do mods and or make coils Boston? I remember a similar name, and sent box to that area to be modded years ago.
The small Minelab 6" round DD was a classic for the 5 pins.
I had a large aftermarket concentic from a guy in Perth for the 5 pins, it only lasted a few months but was okay on smoother ground. So the units will take them. Bad falseing though, a lot of the largest aftermarkets suffered with that.
There was a concentric try on the 4 pins too, but I think it was marketed in the States and we only saw it quickly here.
 
argyle said:
Did Bob Murray do mods and or make coils Boston? I remember a similar name, and sent box to that area to be modded years ago.
The small Minelab 6" round DD was a classic for the 5 pins.
I had a large aftermarket concentic from a guy in Perth for the 5 pins, it only lasted a few months but was okay on smoother ground. So the units will take them. Bad falseing though, a lot of the largest aftermarkets suffered with that.
There was a concentric try on the 4 pins too, but I think it was marketed in the States and we only saw it quickly here.
...No, he was a dealer for David Bishop and lived off the state. Sun up to sun down he had a detector in hand. His marble bottle collection was second to none. Just one amazing person who never threw anything away.
 
Funny enough bobby they were quite sensitive, much more than I thought they would be. The con coil helped. They'd hit small specie stuff, well the ones with a size length on them anyway, because most of the specimen gold would give full hit along length of the start to finish point on the gold it contained, even when thin.
 
argyle said:
Funny enough bobby they were quite sensitive, much more than I thought they would be. The con coil helped. They'd hit small specie stuff, well the ones with a size length on them anyway, because most of the specimen gold would give full hit along length of the start to finish point on the gold it contained, even when thin.

Now that's interesting , can now understand why these units are so sort after ( Tesoro Eldorado Umax ) :)

Bobby.
 
I wrote the reviews for Tesoro on the original manual Lobo--as was first called Gold Demon or some such. I set up the tests in a public forum with 4-5 folks who claimed to be experts on their various units from differening manufactures. The Giffords loved it and ran it in their annual detector book for at leat 3 years. I used our local yokel club meeting,utilized hot black sands,both heavy and light,differing depths and conditions also. Through out all these years whites/minelab/tesoro/troy/fisher have been the king a the hill. With technology progressing so fast now some units becom outdated in a year or two. I detest this new and improved models every year like a car/tv/atv. Soo much tomfoolery at consumers peril. I have depended on Steves expert comparisons for many years to help me decide on what unit to get myself for xmas as I buy a new one annually.. Bottom line is pulse seems to go deeper with larger gold. VLF is king of small and trashy. No unit is perfect as we are all indeed imperfect. I did not denegrade minelab in any way shape or form and please do not take offense. Almost all good quality units are good in specific areas of geological deposits predicated on mineralization,coil sizes make a huge difference also. Run what ya'all brung as none find nuggets,rings or gold as a closet queen-get up-get out and get ya some-tons a au 2 u 2-John
 
Noce post,

I have a mint 15000, MK1 and 2 along with the 16 and a Eureka.
Lots of spare parts and coils for emm,



Still use and love the 17000, 32 kHz is the sweet freq for gold.
Lucky to have the 6" round coil for it.
In fact I ended up with a bin of ML VLF coils and got to pick out the "hot" ones to keep for personal use.
 
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