Steve Herschbach

I am a big boy and have endured far worse in my life. This is nothing, nothing at all really except this. I am not all that great - just a guy, but I really am just a big kid at heart. I like playing with toys and having fun. These people take the fun out of it and the problem actually is the opposite of what they think. I am not in it for the money. If I was I would simply deal with it just like I dealt with all that other far worse stuff. No, it was for fun and truly for pats on the head. It feels nice to help people and simply get thanked for it. Anyway, water under the bridge. Many thanks to you in return Steve, especially for your continuing great Equinox posts.

Good morning strick, This testing and reporting stuff actually is work and takes huge amounts of time. It eats deeply into my “fun detecting”. If anything I will now be focused on more serious detecting projects. I can see me going after the endless number of places in Alaska I have never visited where pound plus nuggets are still hiding. I probably know more about where those places might be than anyone alive. As far as posting I intend on just being another Joe on the forum who posts now and then about his detecting. I am one who reserves my right to change my mind any time I want about anything so no worries there! The irony is a couple years ago I thought I was on a path that was going to take me to dealerships and shows around the country as a Minelab rep and dealer trainer. I was willing to ditch my impartiality just to find a way to get more involved instead of less. Again not a money thing I just thought it would be fun. It would have put me face to face with any of you who had wanted to have that opportunity to chat detectors. Unfortunately it did not work out, and in my life it really is a case of one door closing and other doors opening. It turned out to all be for the best for me personally and now I am off on a totally new and exciting direction in my life, but it does mean now that my attention is simply somewhere else more than detecting. Thanks and happy hunting to you also!

That’s a real nice showing of gold - got yourself a real nice place there!

Contact Andy via his website.

Here is a link to the report Jin mentions above.... https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20190522/pdf/445971qpl49qff.pdf

Minelab Vanquish added to the Detector Database. I am fudging model numbers because except for the untrustworthy Russian site there has only been mention of one actual detector - the Vanquish. I'll update as new information appears. A new vanquish tag now allows all vanquish threads on all forums to be traced in one go - just click the tag.

Minelab Vanquish added to the Detector Database. I am fudging model numbers because except for the untrustworthy Russian site there has only been mention of one actual detector - the Vanquish. I'll update as new information appears. A new vanquish tag now allows all vanquish threads on all forums to be traced in one go - just click the tag.

Minelab Vanquish added to the Detector Database. I am fudging model numbers because except for the untrustworthy Russian site there has only been mention of one actual detector - the Vanquish. I'll update as new information appears. A new vanquish tag now allows all vanquish threads on all forums to be traced in one go - just click the tag.

Thank you. I appreciate it and I am sure Gerry does also. I spent a bloody week doing the report I did and I know Gerry put in the hours so it is nice to get a little recognition for it. I do very appreciate your efforts also and hope you you keep sharing them on the forums here. Again, thank you. ? Truthfully part of it is the machine is very new and came out in the fall here... not the best timing. And in the gold world like it or not... Minelab gets more attention. Machines like the Makro Gold Kruzer land without any sound made at all really. I still have a Gold Monster, Gold Kruzer, 24K, and of course Equinox. I had all four out not so long ago doing some head to head testing with small coils. I refuse to say any one of them just puts all the others away because they are all good performers. Yeah this one there has an edge, and that one there, but the biggest difference at the end of the day is the control set and how it jives with a person. Some people really need a Gold Monster while others thrive on the more control the better. I do like the 24K very much but I have to be honest and say I enjoy using all of them, and don’t feel I am at a distinct disadvantage with any of them either. No matter the machine, the best thing for anybody is just learn that detector and put in those hours. That and research is what gets the gold, not any one “magic machine”. When it comes to hitting tiny bits we actually have not come very far since the Gold Bug 2 in 1995. It still runs with any of them.

I am always happy to offer help and advice and will continue to make sure no questions on this forum go unanswered. I enjoy helping people. I will continue to get cutting edge models and use them. No doubt I will have an opinion on them I might share. I just don’t feel like putting a target on my back any more. I may do direct development work with companies in the future but if I do I will basically recuse myself from commenting on those models.

Needed a bump to top since I deleted and replaced the original post. Things have changed in the last five years so time for an update.

You have mentioned this several times. Here are three pages of threads about the 24K. In the past you blew those reports off as untrustworthy. Frankly, in my opinion, now that you are validating the earlier reporting you could at least acknowledge it exists.

Your technical abilities vastly exceed my own ???

That would be great since all the other TDI forums are getting nuked and blown away. Lots of great info is getting lost or way too hard to find. I appreciate you wanting to make sure that Reg is ok with it before posting though... good man!

Troy never made metal detectors or at least not the X series. They were manufactured by either Tesoro or Fisher for Troy, which is one reason they were pricey. So Tesoro being out of the picture is a bad thing in that regard. Anyway, last I talked with Troy I got the impression you would be wasting your time holding your breath waiting around for any new Troy models. Honestly, the technology has moved on. Dave Johnson is actually credited as lead engineer on the Shadow X5 and it is a classic Johnson 19 kHz circuit pushed to the max. As such the machine rode the edges of instability and had issues with ferrous targets and hot rocks. Anyway, Dave is now at First Texas and so unlikely to be involved on any new Troy stuff. If you want a Troy X5 the First Texas 19 kHz models like the Gold Bug Pro are actually the later more refined versions of Dave’s ongoing work.

What does the nugget air test as? There are many things that might pull a nugget negative, like an adjacent hot rock or ferrous, hot ground, or mineral in the nugget matrix. If the gold air tests negative it would be the last one. I saw a nugget once a Gold Bug 2 insisted was ferrous. It would disappear when iron disc was engaged. If the nugget air tests positive then it has to be something in the ground or the tuning. I am going to put a test bed together and see if I can force a negative response on a tiny nugget.

I have yet to explore this question in depth. I just set iron bias at 0 and go detecting. I have not recovered any gold that read as low as what you are reporting but that could be for several reasons besides the iron bias setting. My recommendation is you spend some time finding those negative number targets that have been coming up gold, and on quite a few of them run the bias to both extremes and check the target before digging to see if there is any difference. I keep meaning to do this but have just been too busy.

Hi Pimento, thanks for joining! I really love your country and people. Been twice and going back for sure. I want to take the wife and just be a tourist on one trip instead of detecting. Anyway, good to have you here! Steve's 2018 UK Adventure

That’s really good actually. I think I will have to have one. I have detected some surf locations where using a scoop and detector was not good yet on my belly with a full size detector got pretty awkward also. Waters edge surf with shallow hard pan type conditions with small deep pockets and crevices. I have found jewelry just hand waving the sand out of the pockets to expose a ring. Be great for those oddball uses and sounds like a great pinpointer in general. Somebody could make a snap on handle for this thing. Along with the wireless headphone option you would have a detector with a 5” coil. Yup, going to have to do it! Thanks again for the report Clive!

The Equinox competes and runs well against the best VLF nugget detectors made. It is more complex to master than most however from being functionally different than what people familiar with the old units expect. More for people who love complexity (options) than simplicity (less options).

Nice report Clive - thanks! What kind of air test depth are you seeing on a nickel?

Just a note to say Andy is sending me one anyway. I don't say no twice. What a guy! Thanks Andy.

OK, here is a test you can perform. I literally just did it. Get a hot rock and place on ground. Go to the Ground Balance setting and manually run the setting all the way to max 99. Now turn on tracking and wave (not pump) over hot rock. The GB number in my case plummets immediately on my rock (yours will be different) to about 25. But then it slows down and settles further over a longer period of time. I got bored and quit at 22. It appears the system tracks very fast when out of whack, but the closer you get to wherever the machine wants to settle it gets slower and slower to track. Makes sense if you think about it. It jumps quickly into a big change, but is slow adjusting on ground that is only moderately variable. Note that if the machine is set too hot for the ground tracking is no magic solution. If you can't get the ground to shut up manually adjusting the ground setting then going to tracking does not add extra magic power. All tracking does is help with variability. It may be (I am speculating here) that if the machine is essentially overloading then the tracking may not work properly. I am not saying the Equinox is a great ground tracker. I have not used it enough in tracking to have a solid opinion on that. I prefer to stay in manual so much that I often just kind of forget tracking is even an option. I hunt a lot of tiny gold and so tend to distrust tracking on whisper signals.

Happens to the best of us!