Aureous

Yes and no....apparently, the coil stability issue is fixed with Micks L4 mods also. A quiet, big-coil-capable detector is better than one you have to find a coil to suit. Give Mick a call or message, he's in Dunolly these days.

It depends on if its a Mick mod or a Woody mod. Woody tends to use the old manual tuning knob on the back end for the frequency adjust. Mick puts both knobs on the front where you can quickly adjust. If you got 2 new knobs on the front panel, its a Mick (Detectronics) mod. Select a low frequency for bigger, deeper gold and place a big coil on the machine. Swap coils around until you find a stable, ground balance-able one. Woody's instruction manual for the 5000 is here: Detectormods GPX manual

Im guessing the Kiwi 20c is only there to tempt Simon into commenting.... <cough, cough> On a serious note, try experimenting with various 18"+ sized coils in deep/normal in low frequency and medium gain. Some coils are killers and some experience an inability to fully ground balance. Once you pick a good coil, flog known big gold areas, in fixed GB if you can. Those whisper signals are often golden. With the right coil, you'll beat a 7000 by a good margin.

Its a gamble with coil selection on GP's. If you can borrow a few to see which ones provide less noise, that would be a wise move. That old NF fibre-board mono is very likely now unusable in any practical sense. The internal formers in pretty much all old NF coils fracture, which causes the shielding to split apart. They become very noisy. Unless you have received one that spent almost its whole life in a cupboard that is.... Unmodded GP's like big DD coils or thinly wound mono's like the UFO series from Coiltek or the Goldstalker series (esp the 'Blitz' ones). Modding allows higher gain in lower frequencies which lessens noise and throws more energy into the dirt. Worth thinking about.

If all you need the legacy ML detectors for is the bigger, deeper gold then no need to upgrade. There's almost no benefit between the 3000 and the GPX4. The 4000 was based around the new timings which helped with sensitivity and hot rock elimination. The normal-general timings were almost the same in regards to them both. The 1st iteration of the GPX series is a better designed board with a number of newer components and made it a 'nicer' machine to use though. You would be better off getting your 3000 modded to punch deeper instead.

The 3 coils Ive got for the Legend suits ALL of my needs, I cant really see any need for anything else. Plus, the factory LG coils are very cheap. But, happy to be proven wrong...

Did Alex and co send you an upgrade kit or a new detector Simon? If the former suggestion is correct, what was the cost? Are vers 2 lower stems available separately?....for a quick change over of coils?

Since owning an E1500, I have delved into the calibration issue a lot. So far, Ive tested three Sadies, two 10x5 Joeys, two 9 Elites and a Nuggeteer 12x4. Both of the Elites run well and calibrate for UF mode. Best sensitivity by far. Only one of the Sadies runs well, one wont calibrate and the other does but has less sensitivity. Only one of the Joeys calibrates and runs well. The Nuggeteer wont calibrate but is equal in sensitivity to the good Sadie and good Joey.....go figure. What I have found out though, is that every coil that works well AND calibrates, are all over spec. The standard Inductance value for GPX coils is supposed to be C. 300uH. If you're within 10% of that number, it will run fine. On the coils that calibrate and run well on the E1500, the inductance values are all above 350uH. Coil resistance values are all below 1 ohm, this doesnt seem to affect anything much between them all. Re the GB2 coils, I had a couple that were killers. One was a freak from the older Los Banos model (pre FTP ownership) and the other was a rebuilt one from the PMC guys. I still have it, but no GB2 anymore. They used an experimental wire in the original shell and hand made internal wire former. Think I found well over 1,000 bits with that little 6x4 CC coil.

Yes, the thing rotated like a top. Lining up the coil bolt holes was a nightmare!

The coil yoke setup on vers 1 was the only brainless thing on the whole detector. Glad to see they finally changed it. I glued mine like a rock within an hour of owning it.

Interesting idea. The one thing I will say is that the manual is very informative and instructional.....but its big. Like a big glossy magazine. Almost impossible to carry with you in the field. So, what Ive done is take pictures on my phone of the sections in the manual of all the more crucial steps I need to learn. One glance at my phone and Im good to go. Plus, Ive only used it for a short afternoon but Ive Christened the detector already with 3 tiny bits of gold. Confidence gained! Its a truly remarkable detector...

if its as good a quality as the Legend and it functions as good as a top-end Minelab PI, then it will certainly be on my radar 😁

Finally got my act together and got my Legend Pro pack with an extra LG24 coil. This is my 48th detector in 43 years of prospecting and coin/relic hunting. So I am not normally too amazed with the event of unpacking and trialing. But this machine really has impressed me.... and that takes a lot. I already own a Turkish shotgun so I already know what quality that country can produce. The weight is amazing, the coils are well designed and practical, the settings are common sense, the BT headphones are wonderful, the Accupoint pinpointer is a real marvel and is now my go-to device to use in conjunction with every detector I will use from now on. Right down to little things like the extra battery and even the well designed coil bolts & nuts. Very practical! Even the arm strap is just common sense with zero frills. Full paper manuals included with everything as well....no need to download stuff to get used to the settings, just look at the included manual instead....just like how it used to be in days gone by. I am now a Nokta hat wearer 😉 All the extra included gear (finds/trash pouch, digger, PP holster etc) is all gonna get used coz its practical stuff. Thanks to @Jeff McClendon for recommending this wonderful detector to me, appreciated <Big thumbs up> Now to find some gold.....

Unless the 5000 is modded, then the gap between the 5 and 6 is a lot closer. But yeah, your analysis is spot on. In US$ terms you can get a used 5000 and fully modded for under US$4000. How much is a new 6000 nowadays????? Its an extra sumthin to think about....

Some of us here may remember that Whites had an issue with certain coils not being able to run high gain past 7-8 or so. It overloads....sounds exactly like the symptoms described. I think ALL of the 6x4DD's that were avail before Whites went 'belly up' did that. My 6"CC did that every time past sens level 8. But another one I trialed did not. It worked perfectly at level 7 and found me heaps of gold, so it wasn't an issue for me. I am imagining that Garrett are now hitting the same wall. Its no problem if you dont wind up the gain to unnecessary levels. Stick to just under where it overloads and treat that like its the 'new max'. If this is not the problem, it could very well be a defective coil or two?