phrunt

That's my big interest too, as from what I've seen only A PI can do this to a degree.

Beast must be the favoured buzzword for marketing at the moment, even the car brands are using it.

A very sincere welcome Bob, you will be a real asset to the forum. A wealth of knowledge. The arrival of this storm is highly anticipated!

ahhhhh now it's starting to make sense, the userrs are doing it. The Ford, GM thing going on. Thanks for clearing it up.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and well, the Legend was a bit of a copy of the Equinox, and now its marketing is becoming a bit more Manticore like. Colour schemes, imagery, naming.... all very familiar. I'm not so sure I like this marketing strategy, they're doing innovate original updates with the Legend, why not take their own path and separate themselves from the competitors.

That, along with their fire sale pricing is cheaper than they have been selling to dealers. If this is the new Fisher, with their new pricing method, I'm quite happy, they were always overpriced I thought, now they're good value and sales are clearly going to increase, the Fisher part of the forum is busier now as it's been in years.

Funny the Manticore uses "Unleash the Beast" as their marketing slogan, now the Legend has "Beast Mode" 😛

That's the ticket, you did the right thing, they did the right thing, exactly as I expected from a business like Garrett, top notch handling by both you and Garrett and I'm sure if it was a problem in the past for people, it won't be now. Problem solved! Great to see Rita passed the information onto someone higher up. You did make her sticky note collection bigger though, at least it wasn't Mary's, hers is big enough. 🙂 Best outcome possible. 10 out of 10. I like putting faces to names so here is Rita. Bob didn't appear in their 60th video, or if he did he went incognito and didn't get a direct interview. Good on you Rita, job well done, and your sticky note collection is nothing like Marys 🙂

With renewed interest in the Fisher range with their firesale, has anyone actually used their "newish" butterfly coil? It does look alright, looks very light. It's hidiously expensive to buy for us in NZ, $323 USD plus shipping from USA which will add another 800 or so USD to that price 😛 Although, I think I could encourage someone to ship me one at normal pricing if necessary. Here is a link to it on their site. I'm thinking it's time to move up from the GBP to the F19 to take advantage of the great range of Nel coils and the Detech Ultimate 13" I've got for the Bug, but this one is interesting as I do like the GBP's high target ID accuracy on coins in our soils here and it is so easy for my daughter to use, she doesn't mind it at all, light and easy to use and locks onto our $1 and $2 coins very well.

Well, you were right @Prickly Prospector Philip is going to be a dealer and will have some stock soon at https://theprospectorsdepot.com.au/ Good to see a single line dealer expanding to another brand.

See, their method is working great, all these people buying their products that otherwise wouldn't. I've seen so many people now that just couldn't resist and bought something, when a week ago it wasn't even in their head to buy these products. Well done Fisher, you've worked out a way to bring your product back to life.

We have to remember the gold detector market customer base is shrinking, the higher gold price may spark some interest from those that had given up to return to it or bring in a few newbies, but more than likely it just makes those already dong it happier 😛 The loss of much of the African market hasn't helped the situation, being the bigger market. What's the bet they have made more money out of the Manticore than they did the 6000. This wasn't helped by the high failure rate with 6000's but the sales volumes of Manticores would be much higher, a much broader market of customers. The Equinox series has probably made them more money than the GPZ ever did even with the vast price difference. They've stated to take note too indicating they're shifting a lot of focus onto these multi-purpose VLF machines. The 6000's selling well enough for them to just leave it the current machine, when the novelty wears off from it and sales slow to a crawl that's more than likely the new GPZ's time.

A big part of Fisher's problem is the fake detectors, it's made it so difficult for them to sell detectors outside of the US, the genuine ones have almost disappeared from sale outside of USA in many other countries, especially in my part of the world. The fakes are readily available, the genuine ones aren't. I hate to say it but the fakes are now working just as well as the real deal, except their coils are a little hit and miss, some get good ones, others don't, a bit like Minelab GPX's 😛 Then there is this, here is their Ebay listing for the GB2 with 2 coils, brilliant deal by the way, I'd buy it myself if I didn't have it already! I marked the points of interest with red arrows. People who viewed that GB2 deal, also viewed four fake Gold Bug Pro DP packages for sale which Ebay advertises on Fisher's ad. A fake GBP DP package, see how they white out the Fisher branding off the box, pretty futile seeing they didn't bother to white it out on the detector too 🙂 At least they tried! The fakes sell well, on that listing 8 sold, 1 left, as soon as that one sells, another 10 will appear. You look on the Chinese sites and they have them available by the 10,000, more than Fisher produce without a doubt. How can they compete with that? The fakes have destroyed Fisher, they're partly to blame by keeping models for so long, especially models that had already been cloned. When the Minelab X-terra was first cloned, it was quickly discontinued.

Interesting update, Nokta keep putting better bait on their hook, they'll reel me in soon enough, the deeper Target ID thing is interesting, depending on how it compares to other deep target ID detectors. Just need those Nel coils to be easily accessible. I'd like to hear how these features improve it as a prospecting detector, the hot rock thing may help.

It's usually on the drive home the emotion of how good the find is kicks in, same with when you find nothing, the drive home is when you feel it 🙂

Minelab would never release a machine that makes every other machine they make obsolete, they want to make every detector they have viable for sale, so a new GPZ would be some improvement over the earlier one, yet it would never make the 6000 obsolete, or any other in the range detector they want to continue to sell. They are more likely to do baby steps, they also don't want it to be the last detector they make, if they throw the farm at it, they'll have little left for the future. I think this is probably the biggest reason we get baby steps with models. They'll release as little as they can get away with to make a viable new model that people will want to buy. I guess I'd do the same if I had no competition. We all know that they were holding back the GPZ, it can go deeper than they allowed it to, it can be more sensitive to small gold than they allowed it to. This paved way for an easy release of the 6000, as its far more sensitive than a standard GPZ. I don't see ergonomics as technological advancements so by lightening it up and adding new Bluetooth version and so on, that's a given on a new model, as other industries have done the leg work for them there, it's the guts of the detector that needs to change for the better to perk my interest, not the body the brain sits in. My 5000 doesn't weigh much more than my 6000, due to upgrading body parts. The earlier GPX series could go deeper than they allowed it to with their Commander coils too, and can be far more sensitive than it can with their Commander coils, they just didn't lock detectors down in those days, nothing new going on there. This new GPZ discussions been going on for years, I think it will go on for years yet before we see anything, if we do and when it does come out, it will focus on depth.

The problem I see is they look like they're never used! Spotless perfect condition detectors! Get these puppies to work.

If you have a 6" round, there is little point buying a 5" round, the difference isn't enough to justify the purchase. The Snake on the other hand has the size benefit, along with more small gold sensitivity being smaller. Depth is a confusing one too, the Snake will likely be deeper on tiny gold than the 6" but there becomes a cross s over point on gold size where the bigger coil becomes the deeper coil.

Great news, there is new firmware for the Algoforce, more user requested upgrades, probably these are more associated with those using it for coin and jewellery beach and park hunting than gold prospecting, but this is an untapped area for many with PI detectors, and having one with Target ID's is a pretty cool feature. I can't remember exactly but I think it was @palzynski suggested this would be a good idea, so I communicated that to Algoforce. Here is a changelog of the new firmware over 1.0.8 Release Notes for AlgoForce E1500 Software v1.0.9 NOTICE - Latest software V1.0.9 was formally released on 08/04/2024. Software version 1.0.9 was released on 08/04/2024, introducing two additional audio settings within the pinpoint (non-motion) mode: C.ID 5 Tones and C.ID 100 Tones. The original pinpoint audio setting is named C.ID Pinpoint, with 'C.ID' standing for Conductivity Target ID. Users can seamlessly switch between audio settings by briefly pressing the Right/Auto GB button while in pinpoint mode. C.ID Pinpoint: As in previous software releases, in C.ID Pinpoint audio setting, audio pitch correlates with signal strength, with higher pitches indicating stronger signals. Tailored for precise pinpointing of target locations. C.ID 5 Tones: Audio pitch is determined by conductivity target ID, providing distinct audio feedback for different target ranges. Conductivity target ID ranges 0-19, 20-39, 40-59, 60-79, and 80-99 correspond to audio pitches of 330Hz, 490Hz, 650Hz, 810Hz, and 970Hz, respectively. C.ID 100 Tones: Each conductivity target ID is associated with a unique audio pitch ranging from 250Hz to 1042Hz. Higher conductivity target IDs produce higher audio pitches, facilitating differentiation of targets. In C.ID Pinpoint audio setting, users retain the ability to adjust the audio threshold through the Threshold setting, consistent with previous software releases. In both C.ID 5 Tones audio setting and C.ID 100 Tones audio setting, the audio threshold is fixed at zero. This ensures ease of differentiation between conductivity target IDs solely based on unique audio pitches, eliminating potential confusion with the audio threshold. These enhancements aim to provide users with greater flexibility and improved target identification capabilities. There is also a new manual to allow for the changes which is available here And the firmware and flash tool on the Algoforce website here I must say the update works great; I've been playing with it for a bit. If anyone's worried about doing the update, I do it in this video and show how easy it is

I have a feeling you're not their target market Rick 🙂 When you have the best of the best, you don't need anything else.

SDC will be the best on the hot rocks by the sound of it but small coils are the go for it, closely followed by the GPX 4000/4800/5000 like Ron's mentioned. GPX will let you put on bigger coils for ground coverage and benefit from the bigger coils with depth. If you have specimen type gold in your area the SDC might be the better choice as it's hotter on that than the GPX 4000/4800/5000 series. The newer 6000 is more sensitive to smaller gold, but also much more sensitive to the hot rocks, a side effect of its sensitivity, in saying that you don't sound like you would care about getting 0.0X of a gram and would be happy enough getting 0.X of a gram pieces anyway. The 4000/4800/5000 take some learning to use, not a whole lot but you do have to be aware you'd have to learn to use them, the SDC being easy to use and switch on and go style detecting. The Garett Axiom is another option, but I don't know enough about it, so I'll leave that to someone else if they think it's suitable for you.

If those placers were on other manufacturers sites.... I likely would have. 🙂 I don't think Fisher have released a new detector since I started detecting, thinking back there have been a fair few paint jobs, the best one I think was the F19 to a Bounty Hunter, that turned a good detector into a bargain. The Gold Bug remake as they could no longer get parts for the original was another one, but that's a downgrade in my opinion. They did release a new coil; I'll give them that. I haven't heard much about it though. The Impulse is not their product, they just helped bring someone else's product to market, which is what their electronics manufacturing business does. If the maker of the Impulse had the funding he could have just used their circuits manufacturing business and had it made for him and kept it his product, and when it had its own website, it did seem like that was the case that they worked out some minor partnership whereby he can use their name and distribution to help get it to market, http://www.ftpcircuits.com/ Electronics Manufacturing (Circuit board Assembly) The most simple and easiest board can be produced very quickly. Years ago, single sided boards were much cheaper to produce than plated through hole-boards but now the difference is minimum. Single sided boards lack the ‘barrel’ (the plated hole) of double sided plated through hole-boards. Engineered Product Manufacturing First Texas' team of engineers are leaders in industry, capable of quickly taking your project from concept to production. Our product team is highly experienced in product design and development, providing creative and cost effective solutions. Warehouse Distribution and Fulfillment We are process and results driven distribution warehouse having experience with hundreds of companies globally including online marketers. Let us seamlessly be an extension of your company; manage orders and inventory like it was our own. Release your order - we pick/pack and ship using our best shipping rates. As you can see, he could have kept it his own product, and just had them make it if he had the money to do so, it's probably what drew him to First Texas in the first place. If their new strategy is just selling on Ebay with make an offer pricing so people pay for their detectors what the buyer thinks they're worth (within reason) I think it is going to spring some life back into Fisher detectors. They're going to get more sales, more users, more discussion on their detectors, Quite a good stragegy to bring old products back to life.

I wonder if this is how it's going to be from now on, this is their new sales style and the make an offer technique becomes the norm, people pay what they'll pay for their detectors. Some inevitably will pay more by not knowing anything and just buying thinking the price is already cheap because the ads indicate the prices are slashed anyway, others will snag a bargain by knowing what's happening and offering the lowest minimum accepted offer. They'll probably sell more detectors each month doing this especially in their higher end models than they have in the past decade as Ebay gives them a lot of exposure and everyone loves to think they've got a bargain.

I'd like to, I really just don't need one though, and with the price still being a big wad of cash it just doesn't make sense to buy it.

I think the new Lite package price has become a permanent sale, in other words the new price; it was meant to be just for Easter but now that wording has disappeared yet the sale is still going. Good news if this is the case. They're down to 13 in stock now from I think 40 to start with. 27 detectors sold from one dealer (Garrett Australia) so far during this price adjustment. There are a number of other dealers running the sale too. $135,000 Australian dollars in Garrett's pocket they probably wouldn't have without doing this price adjustment, it's just a shame they didn't enter the market at this price as uptake would have been much higher. I'd call that pretty successful, a lot more Axioms roaming around Australia now than before. Speaking to X-coils too, requests for Axiom coils have started to pick up with more owners of the detector in Australia, that's a very positive thing for the future of coils for it.