flakmagnet

Just "wow."

I love that trip to N. NV. as well but have you ever tried taking Hwy. 6 out of Bishop and then turning N. on Hwy 360? It's sort of the back way and is shorter if your are going above Lovelock. There are some amazing views and side trips to mining areas that are little prospected. fwiw...

Bill's outing. There we go. Thanks Steve. I was just messing with Rob.

(laughing…) If Rob doesn't know there's a Minelab outing, somethings weird.

Me too...

I completely agree Fred. I am always surprised how many people think nothing of dollying. I have only done that with one group of specie's I once found. The matrix was so ugly. Perhaps if I found more samples that needed it, I might try it.

This is a pretty significant bit of information. It will be helpful to hear if anyone has a problem GB'ing with the replacement ring, or if the GB is correct when using it.

I understand your reticence JW, my half sister was born in NZ and has recently visited and said the same thing. If it's any comfort (and it won't be), the price of housing in the US is just stupidly high. That, combined with the whip-saw economics and politics, makes NZ seem like heaven. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts after your US visit.

Profit…

It is always your fault Fred. Glad you are finally stepping up and accepting the blame. (haha you are funny…)

I returned my WM12 to ML service for exactly this reason - it was still under warrantee - they returned a new one in three days.

THAT is a beauty. Nice listening.

I am willing to see whether this latest flurry of conjecture over a smaller coil may have awakened marketing to an opportunity. It seems that would be the only way there would be a move made on ML's part.

Marketing runs the show - everywhere. Minelab has always particularly been annoying for its silence in the wake of honest, interested queries about pretty logical and rather small questions. There is nothing more dismissive either from a person or a corporation than silence. When a lone person, or a smaller company can make a functioning coil that broadens the GPZ's range with no association from MineLab, it flies in the face of saying ML is shorthanded for engineers or R&D funds. Expecting people who understand the breadth of Codan's business range to believe they are short of either is silly.

I too am over it from a consumer standpoint. There is no excuse for not following through on fulfilling real or implied advancements and additional coils on a ten thousand dollar detector. It is simply ridiculous.

Hi Bill, I love your videos they make me think I'm walking along beside you. I still remember camping out with you and JohnB, RD, Joeforthegold and Mick up in Rattlesnake canyon. Times like that cannot be duplicated and resonate even now.

thrilling to see

JP It does help. It always helps. I have followed your changing methods over the years with regard to GB and find what you recommend now works great. When I know I have done the best GB I can, the best ferrite balance I can, I can trust the machine to give me it's best.

When I worked in the film business it would take me away from home 6 to 10 months at a time. I had a young son who played Spearhead online and so I joined the server(s) he played on so I could play the game with him from across the country. Flakmagnet was the handle I gave myself and then later, used it as an online handle for gold forums as well.

Minelab ads are notoriously cheesy. Happily their detectors are not. I guess it could be worse; it could be the other way around.

Hi Andyy, Don't worry about ruffling feathers, that's not in the equation. I have no doubt the SDC is fantastic at what it does - I am saying it seems silly to buy a whole other detector if one had the choice of that, or buying a smaller coil for the GPZ, that's all...

Well Andyy, that may be true but it doesn't change the fact that, in essence, the SDC becomes a 3700 dollar smaller coil. That's an extravagance most of us cannot afford.

Thanks Steve, this tracks with the information I have been able to get - but coming from someone with your background certainly carries much more weight. This line of questions is not to try to bag the x-coils. I am as interested in them being a step up as anyone but I also want to understand as much as possible about what I am getting before I put my GPZ on the line to eek out that next step in sensitivity - especially as I seem to have an extremely sensitive stock 7000.

The one question that I have yet to see answered in a clear way is; what quality control is being adhered to with x-coil manufacturing? From what I gather they are hand made, which is fine I suppose, but how can one gauge the consistency of their quality? And, if that is not possible, then could there be variations in their capability? I have heard there have even been some rather remarkable variations in ML's GPZ coil quality, although I hasten to add I have no provable evidence this is actually true. Does anyone have clarifying information about this?

But why would someone with a GPZ want to pay $3750 for essentially a smaller coil? I guess that's considered "good business" but I don't necessarily agree.