Revolutionary Detectors Over Time?

[midalake]

In my time span of 50 years detecting the biggest gap filler>game changer>versatility was>>>>The Minelab Sovereign! 

The ability of this detector to master land and ocean was outstanding. 

[Steve Herschbach]

in gold nugget land…

White’s Coinmaster 5 Supreme - first ground balancing detector

Garrett Ground Hog - 15 kHz circuit that started the electronic gold rush

White’s Goldmaster II - first genuine high frequency gold nugget detector at 50 kHz

Fisher Gold Bug 2 - still sets the standard today for small gold VLFs

Minelab GT16000 - first ground tracking detector

Minelab SD2000 - first dual channel ground balancing gold nugget PI

White’s MXT - first genuine “do it all” detector that really did well on gold nuggets

Minelab SD 2200 - first ground tracking nugget PI

Minelab GPX series - first digital backend and Lithium Ion battery in a nugget PI

Minelab GPZ 7000 - first ZVT based model

Minelab Equinox 800 - takes what MXT did to the next level

Minelab GPX 6000 - first high power lighter weight model with integrated battery and speaker

 

[Northeast]

On 12/1/2022 at 3:07 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

in gold nugget land…

Out of interest Steve, how many of these were you involved with re: testing/development?   

[Steve Herschbach]

1 hour ago, Northeast said:

Out of interest Steve, how many of these were you involved with re: testing/development?   

In any way that mattered, the GPZ 7000, Equinox 800, and GPX 6000. I did final test drive/bug check kind of stuff with the MXT and GPX 5000 but they were basically done by the time I got my hands on them. Here are the machines that I've been involved in where I had input more than the normal "test to promote" regime:

Garrett Infinium, White's TDI, Fisher F75, Garrett ATX, Nokta FORS Gold, Makro Racer, Makro Gold Racer, Makro Gold Kruzer, plus Minelab SDC 2300, GPZ 7000, Gold Monster 1000, Equinox, Vanquish, GPX 6000, Manticore, and Garrett Axiom

 

[Valens Legacy]

10 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

n any way that mattered, the GPZ 7000, Equinox 800, and GPX 6000. I did final test drive/bug check kind of stuff with the MXT and GPX 5000 but they were basically done by the time I got my hands on them. Here are the machines that I've been involved in where I had input more than the normal "test to promote" regime:

Garrett Infinium, White's TDI, Fisher F75, Garrett ATX, Nokta FORS Gold, Makro Racer, Makro Gold Racer, Makro Gold Kruzer, plus Minelab SDC 2300, GPZ 7000, Gold Monster 1000, Equinox, Vanquish, GPX 6000, Manticore, and Garrett Axiom

 

Thank you for your time, knowledge, experience, and thoughtfulness for being involved for us who are less experienced in making a better detector for us.

I am sure that many more people feel the same as I do, and yes I am new at this hobby but enjoy each and every day that I can swing my grandfathers detector. I just wished that I had more time to develop my skills with my detectors.

Once again thank you very much for your time that you put into this hobby and forum.

[phrunt]

I haven't ran out of likes as long as I can remember but today I have, it's been a big day for detector users! 🙂  So, I'm  sorry couldn't like your post Caleb/Valens Legacy but I do like it.  Steve has been very beneficial for USERS of detectors for what seems to be decades now having involvement in the many of the best detectors I know of and one of the things I've always liked is his brutal honesty, give him a free detector and he will say it how he sees it,  it's not the greatest detector ever made because it was free and I think some manufacturers value this about him too and I have respect for that,  it really helps them get to the top.  Criticism isn't a form of abuse, it's often constructive and it's purpose is to HELP them become better.

This is why his forum and his advice is invaluable, in fact there are plenty of forums and other options out there, easy to sign up to easy to access, some are more active and have more users and posts, easy to use except those that use an old 80's BBS style forum software, I rarely say a word elsewhere and there is a reason why.... I like the people here and the culture, the best of the best congregate here in my opinion, the nicest, smartest and most sensible and also understanding and accepting people.  

I'm not saying there are only bad people elsewhere and I'm sure many excellent people are but the culture on this forum encourages people to be nice, to be better people and to express their honest views in a nice and overall pleasant environment. It doesn't feel a comfortable place for others so they move on and this is often demonstrated by how civil everyone is towards each other, how often do arguments break out? Very rarely and I'm thankful to the users here for that.

I've had my run in's with Steve in the past due to a lack of understanding on both sides more than anything else, he's a very forgiving and understanding person, as long as he has a genuine reason to forgive which I too appreciate.  JW (KiwiJW) doesn't use this forum anymore even though at one point he was a major contributor due to a fallout and he was/is a great mentor to me and a very good person, although he doesn't use it anymore he still talks very fondly of Steve and this forum, he won't say a bad word about either and to me that's a reflection of not only Steve's integrity but also his honesty, even someone he has a falling out with still defends his character. 

I think our appreciation for Steve's input and what he's done for detector users does go a bit under appreciated, perhaps because everything he asks for doesn't become reality but he is on our team.  I'm relatively new to detecting but some of the things these manufacturers do leaves me wanting to smash my face on a brick wall, they seem so brilliant in some ways and so stupid in others and I'd imagine it would be so much worse if it wasn't for people like Steve steering them in the right direction.

We can't all be good at everything I suppose.  When you see Steve's list of detectors he's had a meaningful involvement in they're most of the ones that I at least like, and certainly a majority of my favourites.   The notable missing one to me is the Whites/Garrett 24k but I guess it was already done before he got his hands on it and I'm sure for others there are many more, we can't expect miracles 🙂

We are lucky at the moment, competition is expanding at a rapid pace, choices are growing, it's a good time to be a detector user, it's a shame finds aren't what they perhaps used to be but who knows... technology is helping find stuff previous detector users missed.

 

[TE Gold]

Of the detectors I've owned, whites MXT, whites TDI Oz pro, Gpx4500, QED, gpx6000, and Gpz 7000, it's the Gpz 7000 all the way for me.

I'm pretty new to this to, I started around 2014. I only detect for gold, and the Z has been a complete game changer.  I really liked the Whites TDI Oz pro as well, although to be honest, I didn't find much with it, but the ergonomics still have not been bettered imo. The Gpx 6000 is close. 

I never owned an SDC, but I advised a friend who was just getting started to get one, and it was amazing for him.

[Aureous]

16 hours ago, phrunt said:

I think our appreciation for Steve's input and what he's done for detector users does go a bit under appreciated, perhaps because everything he asks for doesn't become reality but he is on our team.  I'm relatively new to detecting but some of the things these manufacturers do leaves me wanting to smash my face on a brick wall, they seem so brilliant in some ways and so stupid in others and I'd imagine it would be so much worse if it wasn't for people like Steve steering them in the right direction.

TRUTH! Steve has been instrumental in applying actual field knowledge to several company's products...which is absolutely critical. I know from personal experience with 3 diff detector company's that too many 'yes men' have too much influence and field testers advice can be ignored. I know for a fact that many of JP's suggestions have fallen on deaf ears at Minelab. Basic weight reduction strategies for the GPZ7 is one glaring example. Without the high profile field advisors like Steve, Gerry and JP, much of what is obvious to us, becomes irrelevant nonsense to them. 

To this day, I am stupefied that all manufacturers don't have dedicated IT staff to interact with the customer base via Forums and social media. Both they and we could learn a lot from each other.   

[Steve Herschbach]

16 hours ago, phrunt said:

The notable missing one to me is the Whites/Garrett 24k

The 24K was basically done when I got my hands on it. There were a lot of them like that, where I really did not do anything much but check out the final product, so I did not list them.

Kind words Simon, thank you. I've certainly lost many battles, but I sure did some good also. I worked long on hard on the equinox project, so have some pride in that. But out of it all, it's probably that tone selector switch on the TDI that tickles me the most. That is a direct result of my contacting Eric Foster to see if it was possible, and then it got voted into the final product. Nothing like it to this day on any other PI, and I wish Axiom had it. But it is hard to implement on the dual channel detectors, while it was trivial to do with TDI being a single channel PI.

[Steve Herschbach]

14 hours ago, Aureous said:

field testers advice can be ignored

I just posted saying a similar thing, then saw this. Yeah, it can suck at times. I swear half what the testers say gets ignored, as they already have critical decisions decided - before even asking!!! The engineers have pride of design, and hard to tell them this or that is no good. I learned long ago to pick my battles, but that does mean smaller issues go overlooked or just not fixed. I really can't talk about specifics, but I'll risk just one for example. That rubber door cover on the GPX 6000 headphone outlet. Opened from day one by itself, still opens by itself. But that is the way of all the rubber doors on all detectors and audio modules. It's a flawed method, plain and simple. They either open by themselves, or break off sooner than they should. Fingers crossed on the Axiom rubber doors, but I'd rather screw on caps or plugs. But that's not pretty, and costs more, so we get rubber doors that don't work or break instead. Not the end of the world, detectors still work, but annoying when we are paying top dollar for this stuff.