Steve Herschbach

That big gold/quartz specimen is quite spectacular!

I have been in sales and marketing my whole life and the stuff the metal detector manufacturers do just baffles the heck out of me at times.

Thanks Fred, I am finishing up part three now. It was intended as a two part article but I got into the detail of threshold and how it is controlled deep enough in the last article that I needed a third article to finish up. I recently visited Jerome, AZ and thought it would be a great subject for an article so I took lots of photos. Then I got home and did a search and found a great article was already written about the district for the October 2012 ICMJ http://www.icmj.com/article.php?id=2180&keywords=The_Verde_Copper-Gold-Silver-Zinc_District,_Jerome,_Arizona

The discovery of sunken gold conjures up visions of instant riches: Swiss bank accounts and lazy afternoons on faraway beaches, daiquiris in hand. But the quest to salvage the S.S. Central America — which went down in 1857 in a hurricane off South Carolina carrying 425 souls, as well as thousands of coins, bars and nuggets of California gold — has produced a quarter-century of broken dreams and legal nightmares. Story continues at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/us/x-still-marks-sunken-spot-and-gold-awaits.html?hp&_r=0 Gold bars and coins seen at the shipwreck in 1989. Associated Press

I believe I was the first person to post about the GMT Super Pulse back in Sept 2013. This looks to be the same detector with different stock coil relabeled for US sales. If you follow the thread at Link deleted since Findmall update broke all old links you will see that I liked the unit and talk about trying to get one. I did follow up with inquiries which may have got certain people thinking. But seriously this detector first came out in Aug 2011 as the TDI SL. This is just the SL with a more limited control set. Nothing really new here except the breakthrough price. White's GMT SuperPulse website (no longer active) White's GMT Super Pulse (TDI variant sold in Africa)

All White's coils are waterproof.

That is cool. I wanted a small coil and through end of May one included no charge.

The SPP uses the regular drop in battery pack same as GMT and many other Whites detectors. Comes with the eight each AA pack and NiMH rechargeable pack. And eats them for lunch! You never want to use the AA batteries unless you want to buy them by the case. I used two rechargeable packs - you can put rechargeable batteries in the AA holder. The downside is the short running time per pack. The upside is no transportation issues like with the TDI Lithium Ion batteries. Plus you can use standard AA batteries if you have to. The standard TDI is a high power PI using a 14.5V battery which even then does not get the best running time. The SL and SPP are a variant that has a noise suppression circuit that produces a solid even threshold. It also takes a bit of performance edge off compared to the standard TDI. This is compounded by the use of a 12V AA pack since the TDI circuit does benefit from more power. In theory the circuit can handle up to 18V http://forums.whiteselectronics.com/archive/index.php/t-68143.html

Again, this is just a repackaged White's TDI SL so there will be no surprises on performance. Plenty of field tests and reports already exist. And just like the TDI most Nugget Finder, Minelab, and Coiltek coils will work. But not all! Some non-White's coils required increasing the pulse delay to more than 10uS to work properly, and the SPP is locked into 10uS mode. So if you have the coils already no big deal but I would hate to purchase a non-White's coil specifically to use on the SPP as it may not work.

I have been expecting this one and oddly enough I am pretty excited about it. "Why oddly" you ask? Normally I tend to go for pure horsepower. Instead in the new White's Sierra Pulse Pro what we have is simplicity and killer bang for the buck, in a lightweight, well balanced detector. In a nutshell the Whites SPP is a TDI SL ground balancing pulse induction metal detector with the control set focused down to exactly what you need to hunt gold nuggets. And best of all White's broke through the $1000 price barrier offering the first ground balancing pulse induction (GBPI) metal detector for a manufacturer suggested list price of only $995!! And that, my friends, is something to be excited about! The only caveat is the name. Pulse Pro implies this is some kind of super powerful professional PI. Don't let that mess with you and lead you to believe the SPP is something it is not. There is nothing new here per se. But again I am excited by this detector because I am a bit tired of heavy overly complicated expensive GBPI detectors. In my opinion this is just what the market needs. A White's customer can walk out the door after cutting a deal on a GMT and SPP together and have on heck of a fantastic combo gold getting setup that will get most gold under a wide range of conditions for way less money than most single GBPI detectors currently on the market. The SPP is locked into the hot 10uS pulse delay mode for best gold sensitivity. The conductivity switch is eliminated to insure you hear all targets, but you still get the tone responses that help identify many ferrous items. Intriguing to me is that the model comes stock with a normal 12" mono coil instead of the 12" dual field. This gives up a tad on tiny gold but offers smoother performance in bad ground and hot rocks. Anyway, kudos to Whites. I gotta have one of these for rough and tumble detecting in extreme terrain. Only three pounds, battery and speaker included. But I will need a smaller coil for most of what I do. I wonder if White's can be talked into selling it stock with a smaller coil?

Busy visiting with family. And may be fine for dredging but ground a bit too frozen for detecting around Chicken. Hope I bump into you up there Ben.

Nice gold - I like that rock wall. Thanks for posting Ray. Wish I could get out every day like you now but it will happen soon enough.

I think El Dorado is talking about the 5" DD and you are talking the small elliptical concentric Hobo. I have put the elliptical on my GB Pro and it bench tests well but I have not tried to ground balance it in the field. I will give it a go soon and report back, but being a concentric what you are saying does not surprise me.

No, the Moore Creek gold looks like your stuff AFTER you cleaned it up!

Color and lighting is good, just need to get farther away to get in sharp focus and you have it. I reduced the image size and sharpened it up best I could for you. Nice stuff - good on you Rick! Reminds me of gold we used to find at Moore Creek.

Like any other mineral gold can form crystals but they are very rare and therefore valuable. Well formed crystals normally need an open space or cavity in the rock to allow full expression of the crystal habit. It really in simplistic ways is no different than growing salt crystals. Good article in the American Mineralogist Volume 27, pages 219-229, 1942 GOLD CRYSTALS FROM THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS by STEPHEN TABER, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina. http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/arc/gold.htm and nice photos at http://www.mineralatlas.com/mineral%20photos/G/gold32cp.htm Hope you can get a good photo to post!

More pics. Another question - will the black and gold version cost less than the camouflage Ltd version? Prices I am seeing quoted of $899 discounted to $799 are for the Ltd. New F19 page added at http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/fisher-f19-metal-detector.htm and will update as new information becomes available.

My brother and I will be staying at Chicken Gold Camp. I decided that instead of being out and about staying in Chicken with WiFi keeps me in touch well enough to save me having to activate my satellite phone. That ends up offsetting much of the cost of staying in "town" plus allows me to keep up with forum.

I am looking forward to hitting the road for Alaska in early June. Hopefully June and July are as nice as last summer.

I like that - Gold Bug gets the large nugget and Minelab gets the small bits. Just shows you are one with that GP/Sadie combo Ray.

From the Codan 10/23/13 report at http://www.codan.com.au/Portals/0/investorpubs/Chairman's%20&%20CEO's%20Addresses%202013.pdf : Quote - "We have a number of exciting new product releases planned during the next two years," And - "Our next flagship gold detector will be based on new technology that we have developed and verified; technology that will dramatically improve detector performance." And from http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t17104-new-machine-rumours on November 1, 2013: "The fact of the matter is that Minelab are looking into new technologies in gold detection, but a new top end product release is certainly significantly further than 12 months away." Codan also showed a graphic promising four new detectors upcoming in 2014 and 2015. A new mine detector. A new low end detector (X-Terra?). A mid-range gold detector (the SDC 2300, slated for mid-2014). And a new "Super Gold Machine". All the above seems to me to put 2014 off the table but sets 2015 up as a likely time-frame for Minelab's new flagship gold detector. It is a break from the GPX series so who knows what it will look like and what capabilities it may have. What I personally hope for is a detector that clearly and without question will hit a quarter ounce or larger gold nugget deeper than a GPX. Maybe by just an inch, but that single inch could be magic in the right locations. Better yet would be some kind of breakthrough in ferrous/non-ferrous discrimination but I am less hopeful on that front. Only time will tell but 2015 is shaping up to be a very interesting year in metal detectors, not just from Minelab but possibly from the other major players in the industry.

Awesome set of photos guys, almost like being there (wish I had been)! I'm guessing this trip is the reason your Garrett ATX is for sale GeoJack. Best of both worlds is having a PI and a good VLF.

Wow, I've used almost every detector ever made! Well, not by a long shot obviously but it sounds good. Anyway, it is just a speaking presentation similar to what I did at the ICMJ Mining Summit but shorter. At the Mining Summit I spent two hours afterwards answering questions so this one will be geared towards Q&A since there is no projector facility. Mostly an excuse for me to visit Happy Camp and meet folks.

Copied from http://bb.bbboy.net/thenew49ers-viewthread?forum=1&thread=1564 Club members and non-members alike come to Happy Camp every year to search for the elusive yellow metal (gold). Because of the recent ban on suction dredging, many have turned to other means of prospecting and mining. High banking, crevicing and panning are popular. Many folks also bring a metal detector with them. But in talking to folks along the river I find that most people are not proficient in the use of their detector. In this respect the club has invited one of the most respected metal detectorists in the country to hold a metal detecting seminar at our office in Happy Camp on May 16, 2014 at 1:00 pm. His name is Steve Herschbach. Steve is the former owner of Alaska Mining and Diving in Anchorage, Alaska. He is an acknowledged expert in the field of metal detecting and has “hands on” experience with just about every metal detector ever made. Steve has not only sold many different kinds of detectors as a dealer, but has also used them and done innumerable equipment reviews on different models. Nugget shooting is his passion. If you would like to learn about metal detecting for gold or other types of things, like jewelry or coins and would like to get the best use out of your metal detector, this is the event to attend. Steve’s metal detecting seminar will coincide with another event the club has planned for May 16, 2014, that is a demonstration of various concentrate clean up equipment. Bring your cons, we’ll run them through the various equipment and see which clean up equipment you like best. Jim_Alaska

I sold my F75 a while back but kept all the extra coils because they do work on the Gold Big Pro. The reverse would also be true. Work is a relative term. They are not optimized for the detector since the F75 is a 13 kHz detector and the Gold Bug Pro is a 19 kHz detector. However, the performance difference if any is minimal and many people would probably not see enough difference to matter. Fishers official position is "yeah, they work, but no guarantees". That is the source of the confusion regarding aftermarket coils because coils not really specifically made for the Gold Bug Pro are being marketed as working on it. My 13" Ultimate coil was made for my F75 but it appears to run just fine on my Gold Bug Pro and I kept it for that reason. I also have the little 6" elliptical concentric for the F75 and it appears to run fine on the Gold Bug Pro although no similar version is made for the Gold Bug Pro directly. So bottom line is you can safely try Gold Bug Pro and F75 coils and not hurt the detector but may not get optimum performance. Teknetics T2 coils will not work on the F75 or Gold Bug Pro or vice-versa! I suspect the big difference would show up in discriminate mode and skewed target identification numbers. As long as you run in pure all metal and do not use the target id numbers you are ok but beware using any discrimination at all as it is probably not accurate. This is the official statement from Lead Engineer Dave Johnson at First Texas: "The new Bug (and also Tek G2) are designed to work with the Tek "Greek series" (also known as "Frat Bros.") series DD searchcoils, which at this time (Nov 2010) consists of a 5 inch round and an 11 inch elliptical. Some people have gotten creative and plugged in other searchcoils from the FratBros and F75 series just to find out what happens. Results have been mixed. Because of manufacturing variation in searchcoils some individual ones of a particular type may "work" and others may not work. The ones that "work" may in fact exhibit subtle performance deficiencies, or may seem to work fine today but not tomorrow. FTP-Fisher explicitly un-recommends that people purchase anything other than searchcoils specified for use with these units. But if you have one of our other searchcoils anyway, there's nothing to stop you from plugging it in just to see what happens. It won't damage the machine. Note however that Tek T2 searchcoils flat out won't work, they're wired different."