Northeast

So, I actually asked a few questions and got some good answers. I am uneasy about cutting and pasting someone's personal email responses on here but can give a brief outline. I did have the same thoughts as my current coil actually works fine. Would be a real P.I.T.A to send a good coil with slight cracks to be swapped for an intact coil that did not perform as well. I even enquired re: if they would send back the cracked coil so that I would have a perfectly good spare if required. I even thought about holding out on sending back the current coil until it was well and truly cracked properly. The end result is that Minelab will not return a faulty product once it has been sent in, even if it is still in working order. I understand that policy as some people may deliberately force little cracks, send the coil back for a new one and then essentially have 2 good working coils. The email also referenced "the original batch" was prone to the cracking problem. Mine was one of the 'first cabs off the rank' from JP so I think definitely an original batch. I also queried about warranty as I thought that the new coil would start the 3 yr warranty period again. This was actually a "No", the replacement coil starts from where the old coil left off - approx 20 months of warranty left. I suppose this is also so that people don't get to 2 years and 11 months of warranty, force some cracks and then request a new coil with a new 3 yr warranty. All in all, not great to have to go through the situation but at least it is being dealt with on an individual level and at an ongoing product level. Steve H has previously stated that it is Version 2 of everything that is the one to wait for. My guess is that the GPX6100 will have coil ear issues, speaker issues, EMI issues, shaft issues, etc, all sorted. The early adopters may have had some hassles with this release but I'm sure not complaining too much as my gold poke (increased finds) and R) arm (decreased weight) are happier than ever. 👍

After this was posted on Prospecting Australia Forum I checked mine and yes, there are fine cracks on both ears of the 11" coil. Have contacted Minelab and it will be sent back in the next week or so and have been assured that it will be changed over. Have also been advised that since the original batch there have been changes made so that this does not happen again. Not great but at least with Minelab you know that warranty issues will be dealt with and it is reassuring to know that things are being done so that the issue isn't simply repeated with the new coil. Cheers, N.E.

Hi Steve, Somewhere on here in the past you advised re: how to ignore a certain user - accessed through the drop down profile thing in the top right hand corner. I have never used it and don't really want to. I am wondering if in future versions, we might be able to ignore a whole thread. Some particular threads have no interest to me and continually pop up with new additions over a long period. Be nice to be able to press an 'ignore thread' button and never see it again. Not sure if there are things you are able to suggest to the site builders/updaters or if this is something you see as suitable? Not the most pressing issue in the modern world but would be handy at times 🙂 Cheers, N.E.

Nice hunt Mitchel 👍 The little snake thing looks pretty cool. Do you think it was from a necklace?

🤣

Wow. Glad you are able to enjoy your passion as much as many of us would like to 👍 Me? Varies a lot. Somewhere between 8 and 30 hours a month. But the 30 is a lot less often than the 8 unfortunately!

Hi Strick. Yes, exactly the sort of feedback I want to hear. There are only 'great' reviews on YouTube that I can see. I would be buying from either of 2 different shops in Australia so hopefully following up any warranty stuff will be easy enough. The 1 year warranty is a bit of a concern. A minimum of 2 would give a bit more peace of mind. I'm not buying until I know the water I am going to use it in is nearly down to usual Summer levels since if I buy it now my 1 year warranty starts - but likely not able to actually get in the water for another 3 months yet. Water here is running high and dirty with a wet Spring forecast. The noise is not going to worry me too much initially. My plan is simply to get to depth that others have not been able to snorkel/duck dive to and stay at that depth to work deep crevices by hand - shifting rocks and fanning out the lighter material. There is too much crap in the river (fishing lure bits, fishing lead, broken down tin buckets, etc) to really use a detector and therefore the noise should not be an issue. Thanks again for the feedback and the heads up re: the battery placement. Was there ever any feedback from Blu3 re: what the issue was or did you only deal with Amazon? Cheers, NE.

Its got to be this one for me. About 16 grams cleaned up. Happens to be my biggest but also my most unusual nugget. Found in WA earlier this year with the GPX6 on a trip with my brother in law. We were pretty excited by this nugget that had been missed several times by his GPZ with 14” and 19” coils. Good times!! 🌞 🏜 ⛺️

If I had none of them already? Probably the Manticore if money was not a concern. Surely it will be an upgrade on a Nox and better weight wise and speed wise than the CTX. But, since I already have a Nox, I will be waiting for a CTX upgrade purely in the hope that separation/ID capabilities/ergonomics/speed, etc, etc, are far superior from anything available at that time. In many of the environments we all work it is imperative to be digging as few holes as possible. My wish list is probably over the top and not achievable but we can always hope 😉

@Gerry in Idaho As per Steve, I checked and see you are a Blu3 agent. Have you been dealing with them long? Do you use the equipment yourself? Being in Australia I won’t be a direct customer for you but would be keen to hear your opinion as you’re always pretty open about positives and negatives of different equipment. Others will think I’m asking the barber if I need a haircut 💇‍♂️ 💈 😉 Cheers, NE.

@AlbyM @Steve Herschbach @wltdwiz This thread is now over 2 years old. Did you end up getting one Steve? Has everyone’s units lasted well? Any issues? Batteries lasting ok? Any negative experiences? I’m only interested in the Nemo and will likely be my next ‘big’ purchase heading into our summer. Having been looking for a long time and am yet to really find anyone say a bad word about them. The worst I’ve read is that the bubbles and pump are a bit loud. If that’s the worst thing then I think I’ll be ok 😃 I’m not initially planning to use a detector at all and if I do it will likely be something simple like the Scubatector or PulseDive. Hoping you gents can provide an update on how the Nemo is going for you 👍🏻 Cheer, NE.

You could always pass it under the GPZ 7000. It might ferrite balance nicely 🤔 😂

Hi Aureous. Not quite what you are asking for but this may be a cheaper option for you. If you already have or are willing to get a Low Latency BT receiver (quite small and cheap) and then plug that into some Aldi Bauhn Noise Cancelling headphones that would probably be under $100. I purchased some of the Bauhn headphones on Reg Wilson's recommendation and the noise cancelling feature worked great. Unfortunately I let them go when I sold my QED early last year. EDIT: One thing I should mention. Once you plug in the little cable between the receiver and the headphones the volume control of the headphones cuts out. Same with a lot of headphones and it just means you have to then use the detector volume. Not sure if you are near or know Reg but I'm sure he would still have his and might let you try them? Might be a cheaper option than the uber expensive several hundred dollar jobs that I think are not going to be Low latency anyway. Hope that helps.

A tad!!??? 🤣🤣🤭🤭 You’re telling me the dial goes even higher?? 😳🫣😜

Instructive. Hilarious. “Never, never, never, never, never…” “They wash 1 grain every 45 minutes…” 🤣 Haven’t seen the wobble technique before (towards the end of the vid).

Morning JP. Obviously this is all related to the 7000. Does X signal affect a GPX of any model? Is there any auto calibration happening in a GPX 6000? Cheers, NE.

Yes, I know, but also love the thought of a freebie 😉 I should add 2 things. 1) I have had no issues with any of the the 3 GPX 6000 coils that I have except that a few people's comments about the EMI picking up when the 11" coil is 'off axis' has pricked up my ears as I do find this happens with mine. Aureous's comments about working the coil on angles does ring true with some of my experiences. I simply thought this was part and parcel of a very sensitive detector. 2) Due to the 'off axis' comments I wonder if a non-ML coil might improve things in this area and even allow higher Sensitivity settings. If that can be done, then I suppose it is a question of what is different in the build between the coils. The shielding, the type of winding, something not yet mentioned? Given it is only a potential improvement for me, I won't be racing out to purchase one of the non-ML's as what I have is still serving me well. Will be watching with interest though. Especially waiting for news on an approx 6" X 10" DD coil. Coiltek?

Should we form an orderly line somewhere...? 😁

Great question! Why does it say mono?

Yes, it pricked my ears up!

Exactly. Always available via PM Mr Novakovich 😄

I should also add, I don’t think we are as brand loyal as those from the US. My guess is that most of us would buy a Garrett and not think twice about it IF the performance and the price equation equaled something better than the opposition provided. Yes, buying from an Australian company is preferred but as we know, ‘performance is everything’ 😉

Personally I think Australian pricing and Australian demand is going to become a catch 22 for Garrett. Until we see that it is genuinely going to work well across Aus goldfields (especially re: Ground Balance) then it probably won’t sell well at that price. And due to the price, we aren’t going to see many units in peoples hands to get that knowledge. And until we get that knowledge we aren’t going to pay that price. And because we won’t pay that price due to not having the knowledge we will never get that knowledge and therefore be unwilling to pay the price. Yes, I deliberately went a bit far there 🤣 Unfortunately ‘Garrett’ made or supported people/videos are also not going to convince us. We are a bloody sceptical lot over here! Real people in real Australian ground, giving a genuine, honest opinion is what it will take to convince us. And at current pricing I think that will be a slow burn. Others can say what they want about Steve H but for me, his would be an honest opinion in a real situation if he was to make it to Aus and use the Axiom in a range of situations. But I also understand putting himself out there re: this stuff is not high on the agenda due to past backlash. Something like “52 times bitten, 53 times shy”. Or Garrett can make contact with me - I’m a very ‘average’ Australian 🤪

Already having a 6000 that I am really happy with, I certainly won't be a first adopter but the Axiom still holds interest for 3 reasons. 1) The discrimination ability. Going to be interesting to see just how reliable/crude this is in the field. I notice it is only available whilst you hold down the button. Is there a reason that it could not be locked on? 2) Ground handling ability. Going to be real interesting to see how it performs over different ground. If it can improve over the 6000 then that will be useful. 3) The ability to utilise more controls than the 6000 allows. A fourth would probably be the earlier availability of various sized mono & DD coils and the likelihood of a far greater range of aftermarket coils being available due to the non-chipping. Of course, hopefully over time there will also be a swag of coils available for the 6000 but I suppose I shouldn't hold my breath 🙃 EMI is perhaps a 5th but personally this hasn't been an issue with my 6000. Actually, make it 6 reasons of interest 🤣 Speaker placement and function on the 6000 was a fail. Watching with interest.

Looks like drag coil country to me 😉