Steve Herschbach

Great test and I learned some things. I actually thought the F75 would show up a little better than it did in all metal mode. The good news is you have confirmed that my having an Equinox and having parted ways with the F75 is even better than I thought. Very interesting the difference in Field 2 and Gold Mode 40 kHz in particular. Looks like I need to do some more investigation myself. Thanks for going to all that effort!

Here is a tiny part of a long and complicated story. As I've mentioned, I was a White's dealer. White's had a few very powerful distributors. They also had an old contract with Kellyco they came to regret but could not get out of, leading to some strange shenanigans, but that is another story. Enter the Internet. White's basically feared the internet, and prohibited most dealers initially from even mentioning they were dealers for White's on the internet. The excuse was that they were trying to protect the dealers from undercutting each other. But what they were doing was favoring the distributors, who also just happened to be dealers. They could sell via the internet, but the lowly dealers could not. Dealers were in effect having to compete with their own suppliers. People tend to revere Jimmy Sierra, but he had a huge chunk of the White's pie, and did everything he could to protect his slice, at the expense of everyone else. A big part of what took White's down was having distributors way past the day when they were still needed, but old relationships and contracts had them over a barrel to some extent. Eventually White's listed dealers on their website, and the most you could do as a dealer was place a White's logo on your website, which linked to the White's dealer info page on the White's website. You still could not do direct sales on your own website. In theory you were allowed to sell a small number of detectors outside your immediate local area, but you could also be sure somebody would complain if you did. White's wasted a huge amount of time chasing down and chastising dealers for the crime of selling their detectors on the wrong side of some line. Then White's tried selling machines on their own website, and gave a kickback to the dealer into whose area they were selling. Having local dealers but then getting between the dealer and the local customer. How weird is that? It was insanity. I was a multiline dealer at the time, and a very large White's dealer based purely on the numbers I moved locally. I was also early in seeing the potential of the internet, and drove many more sales via our online website. Of Fisher, Garrett, Minelab, Tesoro, and eventually XP. But White's was basically invisible on our website as I simply went with what I could sell online... at the expense of possible White's sales, since they were not even represented. By the time White's lightened up on dealers it was too late. I'm sure it was Jimmy fighting all this to the bitter end that had a lot to do with White's finally cutting ties with him. The net effect of all this distributor control and full scale suppression of dealership selling via the internet was predictable. Dealers switched to emphasizing other brands. Any casual consumer Googling for metal detectors would hardly know White's existed. It was just not benign neglect of the internet, it was active suppression of the greatest marketing tool ever invented. This was one reason why newer people getting into being dealers ignored White's in favor of other companies that allowed internet sales. Many newer dealers were only becoming dealers to take advantage of the internet, and were not interested in regular storefront sales. White's cut themselves out of the loop.

See the link phrunt provides above. The owner is misrepresenting or does not know what he is selling. Bad sign. It is not a Gold Bug 2, but earlier model. Runs at low gain 19 kHz Nowhere close to the Gold Bug 2, which replaced it. But decent on larger nuggets in bad ground. I would have to argue that not even a CZ3D is desirable/better than newer options. There is an analog nostalgia crowd that might argue such. I think my wired rotary phone made more reliable phone calls than my cell phone. But I’m still not going back to a rotary phone.

The 2.5 hours is first use only. Should get well over 3 hours on the next go.

Keep in mind that many of the most popular PI beach detectors sold for decades had/have no ground balance. They generally rely on the lower pulse delay anywhere from 10 uS to 20 uS to act as an inherent salt and ground canceling setup, with threshold autotune doing the rest. The White’s Surf Dual and Garrett Sea Hunter, for instance, do not ground balance.

One possibility..... all White’s dealer restrictions are now gone. What can White’s do... cancel a dealer for shipping out of area? You might try some U.S. dealers and see if any will ship to you.

I had to chuckle when I saw the advertising details page. Yes, amazing new concept! The Batea at least is something really different you do not see often. XP 2020: Minelab 2016: Not that Minelab was first to do a blue three stage pan either. They were not. Keene was selling these even earlier. But the XP ad sure looks similar to the Minelab ad, right down to the color wheel.

Click on the button below and discover the features and innovation! XP Metal Detectors are launching a brand-new range of Gold Prospecting products.Take your Gold hunting to another level with our new range of XP Pans / Classifiers / Batea / Accessories. The XP Gold prospecting kit will be the perfect addition to your XP ORX high frequency metal detector – The ORX has proven to be one of the most efficient Gold detectors available on today’s market, offering performance and value for money. The XP Gold Pans, Classifiers, Batea and accessories offer the same outstanding quality found in all XP products. To get the BEST results you need to use the BEST kit ! XP Metal Detectors have worked alongside some of the industries most respected gold prospecting professionals, they have helped design and develop our Gold Panning kits, to ensure you have the very best equipment in your hands. XP Gold Kit Features Includes the first 21st century batea!

My first metal detector in 1972 was a White's Coinmaster 4. I became a White's dealer in 1976. Over the years I owned the following: White's Beachhunter ID, White's Coinmaster IV, White's Coinmaster V Supreme, White's DFX, White's Goldmaster, White's Goldmaster II, White's Goldmaster V/SAT, White's Goldmaster 3, White's Goldmaster 4/B, White's Goldmaster 24K, White's GMT, White's M6, White's MXT, White's MX Sport, White's Surfmaster II, White's Surf PI, White's Surf PI Pro, White's Surf PI Dual Field, White's Sierra Pulse Pro, White's TDI, White's TDI SL, White's Vision, White's V3i And as a dealer I "borrowed" and played with countless more models. Right as of this moment I still have a DFX, V3i, and Goldmaster 24K I got in the fall of 2018. It's just now sinking in that after 48 years of using White's metal detectors, I have probably officially purchased my last new White's. I guess it is not impossible yet somebody could purchase the company and somehow take things on to new and improved models. Unfortunately, I just do not see that as being very likely. The name may continue, but White's as an industry leader is probably nothing more now than a memory. It's hard to believe that a company that produced something as sophisticated as the V3i in 2009 is now done.... I was still harboring a hope that somehow a V4 would see the light of day. In fact I figured they either pull a rabbit out of their hat, or it was over. Unfortunately it proved to be the latter. I do know one thing. My V3i is in pristine condition, and I am going to treat it with kid gloves now. If there was ever a detector that might become a collectors item, the V3i is it. I do not think we will see anything remotely like it ever again. The Goldmaster 24k is a very good detector, and thanks to Tom Boykin I got to use it early on and write my last big review of a White's detector. I always felt a little bad about the MX Sport debacle, so it was nice to end things on an upbeat note. A picture of my last detector from White's Electronics, quite a difference from my first "big box" Goldmaster in 1973.

Large coils cover more ground and get good depth on coin size and larger targets. However, when multiple items are under the coil at once, this can confuse the detector. A small coil helps better separate targets where they are close together, like a picnic area. Small coils also enhance sensitivity to smaller items like ear rings. The trade off is the small coil does not cover as much ground, or reach quite as deep, as the larger coil. Lots of details and more reference material here

Well on top of White’s closure, we have pandemic shutdowns plus 4th of July holiday. Not a good time to be trying to find people and get answers.

That’s not strictly true. Tahoe is large enough that is can get some decent surf. It’s just not as big nor often as the oceans, but I am sure it creates scour conditions that might be beneficial at times.

Yeah, time to stock up on spare parts, just in case.

Thanks, I have no specific questions, but am just trying to build a resource for those that may. I put the post together in response to a request for information via PM.

So far there has been almost no official information from White’s, including information about any other service centers being available.