Steve Herschbach

Great write-up Simon, much appreciated!

What do you consider to be the main advantages Simon?

How in the world would First Texas survive without you Rick!

No I am heading over for a reprise of my trip last year to Colchester. Had a terrific time! I’m trying to talk my wife into a visit just to see the country. Thus will be my third time to the U.K. but outside of seeing lots of great countryside while detecting I have done no touristy stuff. I know my way around Heathrow now and think I could handle the driving now so would love to get her over there for an out and about. Maybe next year if I can get my daughter to sit our pups.

Patience Chase.. they are here on the forum and I am sure they will respond. Tony joined yesterday, and Scott, the designer, this morning. But there are time differences.....

No, nobody knows. It sounded pretty close but then there was a delay, apparently over waterproof integrity issues being resolved. Complete radio silence from First Texas so not even a hint. Maybe they are forgoing the pre-release tease advertising that has become so common, and it will just be announced someday as ready to ship and buy. That would be kind of refreshing actually.

I’m quite gratified that my patience working with QED posts has paid off in that the drama appears to be over. It’s a detector and it finds gold, lets learn about it... without drama. That sums up my basic philosophy for the forum. Now if I can just get the X Coil posts to the same no drama state all will be well and history with QED here proved calmer minds can eventually prevail. Good job everyone! I have yet to hear about any QED owners in the States. Surely somebody has made the plunge? I’ve got nothing against the machine personally, it’s just a basic rule for me with any brand that service is available in the U.S. before I consider a detector. And I don’t think it’s ever been FCC approved for sale here in the states so it would have to be an under the radar sort of thing. But that’s never deterred everyone and I would be surprised if some U.S. based PI guru has not yet acquired a QED.

Honestly never heard of them so Googled.... are these what you are talking about?

I suppose if the hole were too small and you just cranked on the screw it would split the rod. Could be what’s going on, especially if some dealers are selling older stock.

Wow, an honor to have you here Scott. I’m quite impressed with my brief introduction to your rod design so far. Once I get some hours on it I’ll know more but I can see it being my standard dry land rod. I’m not sure I’d use it for saltwater use but that’s not a critique of the rod per see. That kind of use tends to eat any rod up and I’d rather ruin one of of the stock rods! Anyway, thank you because having aftermarket items goes a long way to helping make a machine great. I never really had an issue with the stock Equinox rod while in use, but there is no doubt that a good telescoping rod suits a lot of my uses better. Specifically for prospecting in mountainous terrain. The detector needs to go in and out of a rucksack a lot, and constantly breaking down and reassembling is a real pain. And in constantly varying terrain being able to constantly adjust for long on the flat to very short on a 50 degree slope is required and the quick cams help a lot with that. All probably stuff a bit foreign to why many of your purchasers buy the rod so thought I’d toss that in. As always, I am in awe of the finds made in Europe! Those coins are stunning quality. I’m headed back to the U.K. in September for another go myself.

Good info... I did not even know there were two different lengths and don’t even know which length mine is! I just Googled and bought so will have to look info that. Was fine for length however whichever one it is, but good to know should I decide to get another.

“Robert Louis Desmarais is the only inhabitant of a Californian ghost town, Cerro Gordo, where he has been searching for a lost vein of silver for 22 years. A 70-year-old former high school teacher, Desmarais used to visit the remote spot in the school holidays to search for ore. But he eventually moved there full-time, to live away from the crowds "up in the mountains, under the stars". Cerro Gordo (Fat Hill in Spanish) was once the most fruitful silver mine in California. "It helped to build Los Angeles," Desmarais says. Convinced there is plenty of silver left, he descends 800ft with a chisel and hammer to "crack rocks and see what's behind them".” More story and photos at https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49084230

Can you tell us if you think you are in mineralized ground or milder ground? That is the major defining factor. Low recovery speeds work well in medium to milder ground. If I were back east I’d probably be running recovery 3 as standard instead of 5 or 6. Well maybe not

Catching up, here is my last real prospecting pup. Kirby, another fine Golden. I was making the transition from real photography to the brand new digital at the time, and so my photos of him in the field are mostly grainy little pictures. He was there with me in some miserable weather and took it like the trooper he was. Kirby with me at Mills Creek, Alaska in October, 1999... And in all his Golden Retriever glory. Rest in peace buddy!

12 kHz which I am sure was chosen for stability in saltwater as lower than what they have done in the past. And for $254 waterproof with full warranty... heck, I've paid more for coils than that! I don't want to sound like I am pushing the machine though and anybody would be wise to wait until it's out and reviews come in from beach hunters. It's just the price is truly amazing. It's so low as to be a trivial purchase for all but anyone on the tightest of budgets.

I did a little contrived experimenting, and I have to comment that going to a lower recovery speed in dense ferrous did not hurt things as I would expect. Though I can't honestly say it made it better either. But based on theory at least going to a low recovery speed like 2 should make an Equinox near blind in dense ferrous and it does nothing of the sort. It still picks targets. I'm guessing it's part of what is going on with Multi-IQ but don't know. That said when I do experiments like this I hate seeing coins in plain sight get blinded by a nail under one end of the coil. All detectors do it. A coin in plain sight can be made invisible by a single nail 6" away if the nail is positioned right. Kind of like the old bury a dime at 6" and a staple directly over it at two inches and coin is gone. There is no doubt in my mind that no matter the detector ferrous is hiding a huge number of good items out there. You can't see through ferrous, you can only see between or around it. And it highlights how you have to hit ferrous beds with small coils and from 12 different directions to even have a chance. Yeah, we all pat ourselves on the back about what our detectors do find in ferrous, but nobody has any idea really what they are missing unless you remove every signal from the ground until no signals remain. The truth really is painful. Dankowski Classics: Beneath The Mask The Painful Truth I am definitely interested in hearing from others who may try low recovery speeds in dense ferrous, especially here out west or the Appalachian mineral belt. Like I said, did not hurt like I thought it would but with my limited work so far I saw no real reason to go lower either. Depth really does not matter much because nobody gets much depth in a true ferrous bed. It’s all about extracting any non-ferrous at all.

Unfortunately just the opposite in metal detector land and certainly not just Minelab. There have been some engineers mainly sort of take it on themselves to comment at times. Minelab did have one service person post on Findmall a few times but it was more an anomaly. The truth is very few people at metal detector companies actually metal detect and very few know as much as their customers about metal detecting or even their own products. Those that do may have no people skills. Throw in some fear at management level about what may be said and it's easy for a company to just issue a blanket gag policy. Easy, but rather a poor choice in this day and age in my opinion. Dilek has done more for her company than lots of dollars spent on ads by simply showing up now and then with sensible answers. I really respect her and the company for making that effort where others offer a cold shoulder.

Welcome to the forum Tony. That's an amazing treasure find among many. Most people here, including me, would be thrilled to find just one of the coins in that pot!

I’m honestly not seeing how a gap causes anything and I have no calipers handy. I already mentioned the channel/slot machined into the bottom of the rod - there obviously is a gap there. The Minelab cuff mates to itself and can be assembled into one piece with no rod involved at all so it’s not like it’s a vise grip clamp on the rod. I’m sorry you are having issues but I’m not going looking for ones where I have none. If I have any problems I will be the first to say so but I honestly don’t need to be involved in this anymore. You’ve had your say. I’ve offered my opinion. Let’s see now what others have to say. I hope you get it sorted out to your satisfaction.

Not a problem just thought I was missing something? It happens to me all the time!

Simply amazing. Thanks for the clarification Dilek. It’s nice at least one company answers questions directly with no fuss. You set the “Gold Standard” in that regard!

What are you measuring? The rod is round, mine has no flat spot with the exception of the small groove machined into the bottom. It appears to me you are measuring in the small gap and measuring the sides of the plug insert stuck in the end of the rod.

Wow, tracking said I would not get until August 6, but the FedEx gods really smiled on me and the rod showed up here a couple hours ago. I have kind of swore off doing reviews and would not be getting into this other than the questions raised about fit and finish. And yes, I paid full retail ($152.66 delivered) for this rod. Anyway, I grabbed on of my Equinox, pulled off the pod and armrest, and mounted them up. Now I will note this is an all black model, fresh from the U.K. manufacturer. They had no idea who I was when I placed the order, it was online via their eBay Store. The kit arrived meticulously packaged and with a full complement of spare parts... little screws and levers for the camlocks mostly, spare set of coil washers, etc. The rod fully collapsed as shipped is ridiculously small - I still use the Minelab rods for most of my detecting as I am actually one of the people who seem fine with them, but this will be the obvious choice to toss in my kit as a backup if it's not in use as the primary rod. Long story short the stuff went on the new rod as fast as it came off the old rod. No misfit, no issue at all. It did not take me 10 minutes to assemble. The slotted rod was nice, just loose fit the bolts, slide back and forth to fit my arm, and snug down. The armrest went right on no different than mounting to the Minelab rod. The main thing I like is the lower most rod section is stouter than that on the Golden Mask, which has a little flex when extended to max. And the cam locks seem more secure. Anyway, I've not put the rod to use or anything and may be a bit before I do. But as far as I am concerned I am happy I bought the rod and have no complaint. steveg on the forum was kind enough to send me one of his two piece rods and I am very remiss in not mounting it up yet so need to do that with the 15" coil setup. Not telescoping but the counterweight system looks perfect for the larger coil. Looks like I am in rod heaven so I doubt I will need that rod that Chase ordered.

Yeah I see Big Boys has them discounted. I wonder if that’s a mistake as with Nokta/Makro the MSRP is usually the lowest allowable advertised price. It may be right but I won’t be surprised to see it go up to $299. I guess we will find out soon. If so some people get an extra good deal. And if it really is going out the door for $254 well that’s a double wow! That’s only $2 more than a Garrett Ace 250. Yeah, I’m set for detectors personally so much as I like the looks of this I’m still cleaning house of excess units!

I guess I’m missing what’s new here. The video I’m seeing has been posted previously. Or am I missing something?