Anyone Hear Of Fisher Making Any New Detectors?

[Robert Eaton Jr]

To compete with Garrett? Just curious

[Chase Goldman]

First Texas are not doing anything to try to seriously compete with anyone.  

Rumors of a land-based gold detecting variant of beach going AQ Limited Pulse Induction machine are out there and a minor "upgrade" of the well designed Tek-point/F-pulse pinpointer was recently fielded, but that's about it.

First Texas appear content with resting on their aging existing successful designs (e.g., the F19, F70, and F75) and periodically repackaging them with new paint jobs and shuffling them through their three FT name brand product lines (Bounty Hunter, Teknetics, and Fisher).  Sad, really, but would be glad if they totally surprised us.  It collects dust now, but I am never going to sell my F75.

[Badger-NH]

I've given up all hope of ever seeing anything new from First Texas. All they have done from the start has been to milk what they could from the Fisher name.

The real Fisher company went out of business long ago. Everyone hoped FT might continue the Fisher tradition of quality and innovation but that has proven to not be their intention. The AQ was a feeble attempt to create something new but that appears to have been a failure.

Personally, I think that the decision makers at FT are not into metal detecting. Their motives are purely profit.

It's unlikely they will ever get beyond the Bounty Hunter market niche and will never compete with Minelab, Nokta, or Garrett in quality, value, and performance. They did succeed in improving the Bounty Hunter brand but in so doing, lowered or at the very least stagnated Fisher and Teknetics.

 

[jmaryt]

On 8/14/2022 at 8:15 AM, Badger-NH said:

I've given up all hope of ever seeing anything new from First Texas. All they have done from the start has been to milk what they could from the Fisher name.

The real Fisher company went out of business long ago. Everyone hoped FT might continue the Fisher tradition of quality and innovation but that has proven to not be their intention. The AQ was a feeble attempt to create something new but that appears to have been a failure.

Personally, I think that the decision makers at FT are not into metal detecting. Their motives are purely profit.

It's unlikely they will ever get beyond the Bounty Hunter market niche and will never compete with Minelab, Nokta, or Garrett in quality, value, and performance. They did succeed in improving the Bounty Hunter brand but in so doing, lowered or at the very least stagnated Fisher and Teknetics.

 

it is difficult to argue with you as what you say is sooo true, however,i still take issue with you because of the f-75 which was a crackerjack detector, and "very" innovative when introduced!..seems like they have just "stopped" and went in another direction.perhaps carl Moreland can shed some light on what gives with fisher!..I'm just sayin'

(h.h.!)

j.t.

[Badger-NH]

9 hours ago, jmaryt said:

it is difficult to argue with you as what you say is sooo true, however,i still take issue with you because of the f-75 which was a crackerjack detector, and "very" innovative when introduced!..seems like they have just "stopped" and went in another direction.perhaps carl Moreland can shed some light on what gives with fisher!..I'm just sayin'

For sure, I agree the original F75 was an awesome detector but it was a hassle to use compared to Minelab and other brands. Later versions of the F75 were a little more user friendly, but they were also less sensitive which killed it in my opinion.

The Gold Bug Pro and F19 are good relic machines. I kind of wish I had kept my GBP.

 

[jmaryt]

sorry for the late reply. yes! I agree as the earlier versions were a "bear" to use in just about any hunting environment.
noisy as hell,and tough to stabilize. they " were' better later on, but by that time most had moved on to other detectors.
not sure if fisher is still a player,as they keep dragging their feet. believe they are all done. they are a big corporate entity involved in other areas,so it tells me the interest in the hobby market may be over.
 

(h.h.!)
j.t.

[phrunt]

I believe and hope they're still working on the Impact Gold PI machine. 

Getting a bit far behind in the VLF's to really do much other than low end machines but that end of the market is becoming fierce with very good waterproof detectors, even switching multi frequency and basic SMF are becoming low end. 

One has to wonder if the massive investment First Texas would have to do to become competitive in today's VLF market it would even be worth them trying.   It's a race to the bottom for pricing at the moment, not the ideal market for big spending to try catch up.

All this was predicted years ago, if people like me can guess this would take place someone with much more knowledge and understanding should have been able to see this all happening.  You can go back and read old posts about First Texas and see where I and others commented that the likes of Nokta would come out with cheaper and better machines and at some point Minelab would have to fight back causing a competitive market, now even Quest is coming into the picture.  You can't sit on electronic product models for decades and think that won't encourage competition to come in to the market and take all your sales away.

It's not too late for the Impact Gold, but if they hold off too much longer it might be.

[JamieinMaine]

It is interesting that First Texas is selling off a bunch of things on their ebay store.  Some machines at half the cost of ones at Amazon.  Also lots of older parts for older machines.

FirstTexasProducts | eBay Stores

[Daniel Tn]

Sure, other companies have put out newer models onto the market.  But it seems like we've went backwards instead of forwards. 4 AA batteries in a T2 will last 40 hours of use.  Detectors today won't last 8 hours with their internal batteries.  They are supposed to have more power which increases battery consumption but that's not translating into more depth/performance. In fact, put a 11" size round coil on a T2 like these newer machines have on them and do some comparisons.  The biggest advantage the others have is: waterproof?  That's only for situational hunting; not everybody hunts in the rain or water.  The other might be SMF but that really only shines in salt environments.  It would be nice to see some signs of life from them but hey, what they came out with in 2007/2008 is still hard to beat.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Daniel Tn said:

Sure, other companies have put out newer models onto the market.  But it seems like we've went backwards instead of forwards.

It seems that way to me too. Well said.

On 8/13/2022 at 6:27 PM, Chase Goldman said:

First Texas appear content with resting on their aging existing successful designs (e.g., the F19, F70, and F75) and periodically repackaging them with new paint jobs and shuffling them through their three FT name brand product lines (Bounty Hunter, Teknetics, and Fisher). 

That is exactly how it looks. Even a lot of the Fisher website looks like it has not been updated in years. It is all reminiscent of how Tesoro drifted off into the sunset.

There is one important difference though. Because I am interested in the F19 and clones for this year, I sent them an email. The response was timely and they answered every question I posed in a satisfactory way. They might be quiet, but the lights seem to still be on. 

Sending emails to manufacturers is a thing I have often done to to evaluate them. I ask what I want to know and see what they do and correlate that with what I see online. Fisher has always been good over the many years I have worked with them. One time Dave Johnson himself answered some questions I had on the Gold Bug II.

Some manufacturers have not done as well. When answering inquiries, some really fall down and that says poor customer service to me. At least with FT I know there will be something there if I need service after purchase. I never worried about service from Garret or Fisher, they were solid. Nokta too.