He got it in November as a 'back-up' unit and overspent at Christmas time. I was going to try and turn it for him but he needed the $$$ quickly so I bought it. Then I needed some $$$ quickly, unless I found a favorite oldie!
Now, as for the Teknetics Mark I, most were in the gray housing with the black and silver decals. They had a blue version that went out to some distributors and a few dealers, and the red version, which was the Mark I Ltd. The only difference was in the color of the housing and the color of the display, and the coil housing was also red.
The interest in the Mark I is easily nostalgic. Sort of a walk down memory lane, so to speak, if I can get good enough performance out of it in this high mineralization. When the Mark I was first out and I was using it the most I lived in Utah and the ground there was much more favorable for use of that very slow-sweep Teknetics. I'll know by this weekend how it does here where the ground is dirty bad nasty.
As for the Gold Mountain VIP, that's another memory trip I'd like to take. I had been a Garrett dealer until mid-to-late 1981, and used mainly a VLF/TR Ground Hog and an Amrican S2 TR. They made some changes about the time I moved from Oregon back to Utah. On a whim I ordered in a few Gold Mountain VIP Deluxe models and what I discovered was that they were the more comfortable of the VLF/TR-Disc. models produced at the time, for me, and I had exceptional performance. I especially liked the variable Tone control, but just the physical design and performance was very good.
I hunted a lot with that Gold Mountain VIP and put it up against many of those early-day, fast-motion discriminators. It had a very good audio, and I got better depth in the TR-Disc. mode than I had been getting. The "Deluxe" simply meant that it was a 2-coil package, which was popular with manufacturers back then.
So, the XL Pro I had listed was simply an extra I had picked up to help out a friend. I still have my own XL Pro as part of my four-detector battery made up with the White's XL Pro & modified IDX Pro, Troy Custom Shadow X5, and Minelab X-Terra 50.
From time-to-time, I just like to take a little stroll for old-times sake with an old favorite in hand. Sometimes I hang onto them for quite a while, other times I sell them after a month or two. Who knows, next time it might be with one of those shallower-seeking, simple Garrett TR's I used to use to find a lot of older coin with ... some 25+ years ago where there still was a lot to be found at yet unhunted sites.
Go swinging!
Monte
I can see the Tecnetics Mk I since I used the old silver and black original back in the 80`s myself-the very first analog TID machine!I don`t know about the "red box" version;how does it differ?Before the lynch mob arrives to break down your door maybe you can fess up to why you want the Gold Mountain VIP.
Does Mr Bill know your password?