Rick K - First Member

I've been away from the forum for a good while, but very recently dipped my toe in again. One reason was that I have about 10 detectors lying around as a result of my previous intense curiosity about these magical devices,, how they worked, the story of their development...yada yada yada. Wanting to get together all the notes, copies of data and posts related to various detectors I need find a good home for, I decided to use a tool which I am relying on a lot in the rest of my life and interests. So, wanting to dig up what I could on a lovely Teknetics Mark 1, factory hip/chest mount - which I need to "re-home", I went on Bing Chat (part of the Microsoft Edge browser). Here's what I wrote in my "prompt" can you find any information on the teknetics Mark 1 metal detector here's the result: I found some information about the Teknetics Mark 1 metal detector from a web search. According to a post on DetectorProspector.com, a user found a Teknetics Mark 1 metal detector for sale on Craigslist for $100. The seller indicated that he had no idea if it worked or not as it had been sitting for decades. The user eventually purchased it for $25 and found that it worked after replacing the batteries 1. Is there anything else you would like to know about this metal detector? 1. detectorprospector.com2. tekneticsdirect.com3. tekneticsdirect.com+1 more of course, the first reference link was This forum Teknetics Mark 1 - Factory Hip Mount - Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons - DetectorProspector.com Which is, of course, my post and the resulting posts from December 2020!

here's some petrified wood...not. tumbled, just sand blasted by lord knows how many thousands of years - exposed on the desert pavement surface near Riyadh Saudi Arable.

Pimento - I’m pretty sure that your guess is correct.

Bruno, you aren’t comparing “apples to apples”. The $1499 price was for the AQ Limited and was intentionally low to get units in the field. The current guesstimate of the price of the AQ “Unlimited” version is in excess of $2000. The issue of exchange rate is interesting. Fisher will doubtless set their distributor level price in USD. If the European distributor pays in USD, his actual cost for the unit will be FEWER Euros than the amount in USD. European prices are influenced by many factors. There is increased shipping cost, import duties and most significantly - the European price includes Value Added Tax - VAT. US prices NEVER include local sales tax which is added on to the price at checkout.

I suspect it will be released - too much invested to back away at this point - hopefully they have solved the production issues. If they have, they can sell them for 10 - 15 years at a nice quiet rate to serious salt beach hunters. Meanwhile everything learned throughout the VERY painful launch of the AQ Limited will be applied (I hope) to making the Impulse “Platform” a steady moneymaker for decades. We will see.

Alexandre’s details apply to the “Unlimited” production version I believe. The AQ Limited now being sold by Fisher is shown in Arturo’s email as “IMPULSE-AQ-NIMH” - I take that to mean that it is the AQ Limited.

If the above comments are accurate, It is a situation in which I am not pleased at the way Fisher has utilized the marketing information I sent them. I sent the President of FTP a strong email protesting their pestering “declined” customers with emails etc. Imagine my embarrassment when I found the cause of the mess.... I just figured out what the hell happened. MY BAD. I kept a neat list, all you prospective and committed customers, plus a list of those who had been on the list and declined later, plus all the buyers All neat on my iPad in “Numbers” the iOS spreadsheet. I just looked at what Fisher actually got. My spreadsheet converted to an incomprehensible list of Excel spreadsheets with all the data scrambled. MY apologies to anyone who has been inconvenienced. I will also have to apologize to the President of First Texas who I just sent a stiff email to!!!!! I do wish however that they had sent me an explanation of what they intended to do going forward.

Nobody asked me any questions about the list. I was given no information regarding how they planned to use it to market the remaining AQ LTD production. The spreadsheet was clearly divided into prospective customers (thank you all) - “withdrawn” prospective customers - and customers who had purchased a unit. .............

Some weeks ago Fisher decided that the remaining production of AQ Limited units should be sold directly by them. As part of the agreement under which Fisher and I documented ending my role as sole dealer of the AQ Limited, I forwarded to them my list of registered potential buyers. On the same spreadsheet were the details on those who had asked to be withdrawn from the list as well as those who had already purchased AQ’s. The agreement was satisfactory to to me and included compensation to me for providing the prospective buyers list and confirmed my ongoing role as a Fisher dealer.

Fisher and I reached an agreement - they decided to proceed with production of AQ Limited units but felt that it would be best if they dealt directly with the buyers. Since this was a change from what had previously been agreed between us, it was necessary to reach a new agreement. This was done and my list of waiting buyers is now with them and I have received an acceptable compensation for my work in marketing the Limited. I will continue to be a FTP dealer and am very hopeful that my experience with this project over the last nearly 4 years will induce potential buyers to chose me as their dealer.

I just checked Sven’s website and per the field tests he linked to, My factory Hip-Mount Teknetics Mark 1 was introduced in 1985, so I have a “qualified” machine. Here’s a link to his site...lots of stuff on vintage detectors....https://www.treasurelinx.com/tk.html

It is a DFX “locked” into salt mode. It will reward you far beyond your $100 if you get out there and use it. Not great as a deep wading machine - that big case floats like a life preserver. I had one and found it to be useful and sensitive - buy it for $100 and I will pay you $200!

I have no “inside info” except that it costs them way less to sell pallet loads of detectors to one place than a few boxes of them to another. I suspect that for most brands the “usual drill” in the “old days” was to “Sell into” lots of detectors. Make the distributors and dealers buy lots of stock in order to get the best margin on eventual “sell through” - retail sale to end users. That is going away as mom and pop dealers go away. The remaining dealers are online one way or another and other than the “big box” outlets - I suspect that they are on “direct ship” - they get an order and immediately place their order with the manufacturer who ships to the customer.

I had two of the prototypes to test - one in San Diego and back here in AZ and another in Norway in conjunction with their Norwegian Agent. I also was offered the opportunity to purchase the first AQ Unlimited model in December 2019 and I happily did so. All of these functioned exactly as I expected - excellent depth even in black sand at Coranado in San Diego and with useful multitone and mute discrimination functions - nothing like a VLF discriminator, but in some circumstances very useful. Depth, quiet and power. That pretty well sums it up. It’s a PI, not a VLF/IB detector. As far as “selling” goes - it was a one-time arrangement - my 3-4 years background with the Manta Project, which became the AQ - made me uniquely suited to assist Fisher with this “Buy-In Public Beta” arrangement which no one in the detector world had ever tried before - to the best of my knowledge. Assuming the AQ proceeds to the “unlimited” stage, I hope to be a dealer for it - along with others.

I am awaiting information from Fisher.

Dew, this might be the post of all of yours that I like the best. YOU NAILED IT! Fisher tried something which no one else has - in detector land - a kind of public Beta Test where the testers have to “buy in”. And just to show you that no good deed goes unpunished - here is a bit I have been saving about product testing - with a focus on metal detectors...feel free to stop reading now! There are several kinds of tests for new products. Alpha Testing - this is done in-house on engineering prototypes. Devices which don’t show the promise of reliable performance and fitness to compete against existing leading devices in the intended market go no further in the development process. Beta Testing - pre-production devices whose final design and configuration decisions will be made on the basis of heavy use by experienced field testers. the units are sent to outside testers who have long established experience and credibility in the technology involved - as well as an established respect for confidentiality. These tests are conducted under Non Disclosure Agreements and no publicity is wanted or allowed. These testers are valuable especially for their impartiality. I know personally a couple of such folks who have tested products from competing manufacturers and provided valuable feedback while respecting confidentiality. Public Beta Testing - this is a variant of Beta Testing where at least some portion of the general public user base of a product is invited to use the product and provide feedback. Confidentiality in not usually demanded. Marketing Testing - production level hardware is sent to “influencers” - these people may be dealers, experienced users, respected members of communities of users of the type of product in question. Needless to say, here publicity is the goal. It would be foolish of a company to choose as marketing testers folks who had a history of bad-mouthing the company’s products or representatives. Post-launch testing by users - this is pretty much beyond control of the manufacturer. This happens in the press, on Forums, Facebook and and is the kind of stuff posted on YouTube by enthusiasts or publicity seekers. The decision by Tom Walsh, the President of First Texas to build a quantity of AQ units and put them in the field as “Limited” versions - selling them at the lowest possible price amounted to a new kind of “Public Beta” testing, where the testers had to buy their machines. The goal was to gather valuable data about the design in order to optimize it for a full launch of a version which would benefit from all the feedback of users of the Limited version. I was selected as the sole dealer to distribute these units and the buyers were required to read and acknowledge their understanding and acceptance of the contents of Tom’s “Disclosure” about the Limited which explained in detail what it was and what the conditions of its sale were.

The Limited was a “one time good deal”. The selling price was the absolute minimum to encourage experienced beach hunters to try it and thereby gather the maximum feedback on its performance and utility in the hands of folks who had the dedication and experience to provide the usage and feedback desired. The price of the “Unlimited” version has to cover the millions in research and development costs, the bill of materials and return a profit. The price is not out of line for comparable machines such as the CTX and Minelab’s gold nugget detectors.

I am not aware that any of the AQ's have leaked.

Blush

I have been plagued with this for decades. Cheap and effective - Duct Tape. 2 days will do it - keep the moisture in and let it heal.

Hard to understand why the obvious seems so hard to do.

I am not aware of Dave’s saying anything else about the D Micromax. I think he liked it for its elegance. Light, easy to “thumb” the controls, and the dual GB function to knock out hot rocks were probably the main attraction. I found that toggle switch a pain, I would use it to check a hot rock, then forget to return it to the correct position. I never kept one mostly because I was good at finding them reasonably priced and selling them at a nice profit.

I have 2 of the DFX type BF and two of the older 6.59 MHz ones. I have listed one of the DFX ones for $550 (to get my money back. I overpaid a bit for it). The other one I am hanging on to along with the DFX I got with it for a price which would piss everybody off if I revealed it. The 2 of the older type are staying for now - one for my IDX Pro and one of the earliest ones for adapting to my Teknetics Mark I to make what might be the best coin and ring sweeper possible.

Lots of folks think that the Tesoro Diablo MicroMax is the most desirable Tesoro of all time. I had two (or three, I’m not sure) and sold each one - even though it took a LOT of effort to find each one. Do I regret selling them - not really, but if I saw a chance to buy another one at a good price, I would likely do so. I am a sucker for a “story” detector - one that has a real “buzz’ associated with it - hence the D’MMax. Hence also why I currently have four Bigfoot coils, a Teknetics Mk I, a Tesoro Pantera and various other strays. I learn something from each of them, trying to understand what made them special to so many users, and then - the realities of storage space and lack of time - make it reasonable to move on.

I have sold approximately 25 units to date. FTP sold at least a couple to established customers. Thanks Steve for your excellent summary of where things seem to stand.