Bashing The GB II

[goldbrick]

I really am not bashing the GB II but I just never could connect with the machine. Crummy discrimination and awkward ground balance system combined to make it less than one of my favorite all time detectors. I am not denying it is the best at what it does, I just never liked how it did it. Last fall a friend of mine needed a GB II worse than I did so mine went to a new home where it would find love.

That left a hole in my detector line up. Yesterday I filled that hole with a Gold Racer, should be here in 3-4 days. I already have a Red Racer so I know the build quality will be good. Look forward to going head to head with Lucky and his Gold Bug in the Sierra hydraulic pits this summer. Me thinks he will be buying the beer at the end of the day. LOL

p.s. A BIG shout out to Chris Porter at DetectorAid.com for the excellent service!

[Rick K - First Member]

I have always thought that the Gold Bug II's stacked coarse/fine gb knob arrangement was brilliant and very easy to use.  Different strokes for different folks I guess!

I believe that the discrimination was never meant as a search mode, only as a cross-check. It works very well that way.  Newer machines such as the F19 and Gold Bug Pro - and now the Racer gold - show that the realities of detecting in heavily trashed locations have influenced later designs.

 

[LipCa]

Rick is right, it was not a discriminator. Only  "Iron ID".  

The Gold Bug 2 is almost a "turn on and go" machine.  5 seconds to ground balance......

The Gold Racer is a fine machine but lots of adjustments to master.

[strick]

2 hours ago, goldbrick said:

 Look forward to going head to head with Lucky and his Gold Bug in the Sierra hydraulic pits this summer. Me thinks he will be buying the beer at the end of the day. LOL

 

Robin will kill both of you guys with her 2300!

strick

[Steve Herschbach]

Gold Racer all metal mode with ground grab is hands down easier to operate than the Gold Bug 2. It is only if you delve into the extra capability entirely lacking in the Gold Bug 2 that makes the Gold Racer more complex.

[LipCa]

Steve, after using the GB 2 for 21 years and the Gold Racer not so long, the GB 2 just seems sooo easy.

 I agree with the second part of your sentence for sure. I think it would overwhelm a first time user?

[Steve Herschbach]

Well Harry, I think the Gold Bug 2 is super easy! I also know lots of novices would tell us we are nuts. Getting a handle on a manually tuned hot VLF is not as easy as it seems to us old timers. Number one complaint on Gold Bug 2 when I was in the biz was inability of casual users to ever learn it well enough to get good with it.

If money is no object people should just get an SDC - way way easier than a VLF and nearly as hot, better even on deeper stuff.

[LipCa]

Like any detector, you "gotta use it" to know it.

See you in Placerville.....

[goldbrick]

Can't hunt in the trash with the SDC though. Today I was in NV detecting an unnamed gold camp with my Red Racer even though I had my SDC along. This place has been pounded to death with GPX, SDC, and GPZ's. I was skunked on the gold but by hunting in the trash where PI's fear to tread I did find two 1936 dimes and a couple wheaties. Could have just as easily been gold.

[Hard Prospector]

I have two GB2's; made one into a pinpointer and the other is still my bedrock sniper. They have become "task specific tools", and when prospecting in the desert where water is scarce, its amazing what that machine can do with just a bit of creativity. I know they're finally on the cusp of being over-taken by newer machines but  I will always have one.