PhaseTech

The 14x9" is no slouch. In the testing I've done so far, if you can run a high gain on the 14x9" it will pretty well match what the 12x8" can do, especially if you can run Sens Extra. In hot ground it's a different ball game. Where you are forced to drop your Rx Gain, the 12x8" retains a lot of sensitivity, where the 14x9" starts to lose signal sharpness a lot earlier. Interesting thing though, on this 0.1g bit, Fine Gold was the best, provided I kept a slow steady swing. Sens Extra was next best, followed by Enhance which struggled a bit. I've seen this scenario several times in the past, which is why I still have the 5000, even though I have a soft spot for the old 4500. I also tried the 15" Evo just for kicks. Sens Extra was the only timing that got a sniff on it, but I had to up the Gain and back off the stabilizer. Fine Gold and Enhance nothing. In thick scrub, the 12x8" is nicer to use.

You forgot the magical part of the equation, the size of the target! I recently tested a 0.1g prickly piece of gold and the 12x8" got it deeper than the 12" by a good margin.

Yep, that's where the Gold Kruzer comes into the equation.

A new product selling well isn't a sign of how good it actually is, okay maybe a little, it just means the company has done their marketing homework. ☺️ What is truly a sign of a good product is how well it is selling 1 or 2 or even 3 years after release - that is the true stamp of approval....or not?

I don't think the world is bored with high frequency detectors - actually quite the opposite! VLF sales remain strong here, and a few of my customers have even added one to their arsenal next to their PI (maybe not so much GPZ users). It wasn't that long ago that many prospectors here were quick to say "Don't waste your time with a VLF, just save up and get a PI". I see this attitude slowly changing to something along the lines of "If you can't afford a PI, get yourself a good high freq VLF, and hit the mullock heaps and you will get gold. When you get a bit more experience and funds, get yourself a PI to complement your VLF" This is a big change in attitude and I think the reason is partly due to the SDC. The SDC proved that there was and still is A LOT of small bits still lying around the goldfields, and users have quickly discovered that in certain soils, the Gold Monster, Gold Racer, and now the Gold Kruzer are quite capable of pinging what a lot of people have started calling "SDC Gold" or simply Fly Shit. The other reason more are getting into them is the light weight. Sure, VLFs have always been pretty light, but if you compare a Eureka Gold (discontinued not that long ago) to say a Gold Kruzer, things have come a long way! I speak to potential customers every other day who have bad shoulders, bad backs or other injuries where they have hired one of the bigger machines and just can't handle them. And lastly, and perhaps more importantly, they work! If people weren't finding gold with these units, they'd slowly get forgotten, and be called toys. Recent units definitely have improved. While the base circuitry in a VLF is the same, little tweaks here and there can make big differences.

Not sure about US, but the Kruzer and Multi Kruzer were released at the same time as far as I know. The two units are identical aside from the extra two frequency options on the Multi. In Australia, you basically are paying $200 extra for the 2 x extra frequencies. The 14 kHz does a great job as an all-rounder, and at $925 (aussie dollars) the single frequency Kruzer represents great bang for the buck. But for the more serious, the other frequencies in the Multi do offer a few advantages: 5 kHz can gain 1-2 inches on our silver pre-decimal coins 5 kHz is also a lot less sensitive to tiny foil, which can be a nuisance in many parks 19 kHz is slightly more sensitive to small jewellery, and noticeably more responsive to small gold 19 kHz also seems to handle mineralisation a little better compared to 14. Yes Jackpine, one of the great things about Nokta/Makro is when they release a new machine, there is a suite of optional coils available, and Mars have some other sizes available too.

Spot on. But that blade gets down crazy deep on the tiniest targets! Just keep your stabilizer backed off (higher numbers) so those faint ones get through.

Yeah, with a spiral wind, the smaller the coil, the spiral binding of wire is wider and wider, making the hot spot in from the edge. On a 14x9" Evo, the field of detection is virtually along the centre of the coil, more like a DD coil. The bigger the coil, it has less turns, so the stack of wire is not as wide, and a spiral wound coil starts to behave like a bundle wound coil. I think that's what you are seeing with the 19" Evo. There will soon be another new gen coil to consider for one's arsenal, the 12x8" Evo. I've done some preliminary tests, and it is doing all the right things so far! Just don't want to jump to any conclusions too soon.

Thanks. Yeah that was super frustrating on the day. I think the nugget slipped back into the hole at some point and then I got a signal on that bit of ferrous off to the side of the hole. I couldn't work out why it appeared to keep moving, and then it was all of a sudden back under the dirt!! It all made sense after I filled the hole in and rechecked, and got another faint signal. Luckily the hole wasn't too deep! Got a couple more videos to come on future hunts at that patch. It was very fun while it lasted.

There was a spot that I had driven past hundreds of times over the years, and always in the back of my mind was some old timer telling me "I got a few bits there back in the SD days". But it just didn't "look" good. Well, I will never think that again! I decided to finally stop there after having a bad spell, and a bit of renewed interest in the GPX5000 teamed up with the 15" Evo coil. Well in short time I got 3 bits for 1.4 grams, and a heap of junk targets. I decided to go back for another look, but this time with a 12" Evo coil, and this was the next lot of finds:

Thanks for the report! This little excerpt above is the key improvement to this machine - they've really done some great work here. Very stable, and holds its threshold really well. If the AU Gold was an improvement over the Gold Racer it was maybe 8%. The Gold Kruzer seems like a 25% improvement. This will definitely allow more gold to be sniffed in areas where you normally wouldn't venture with a high freaker.

Yeah the GM speaker is very loud, but do you really want to alert others when you are onto a patch ? I just use the Quest wirefree mate. Transmitter unit with 3.5mm plug straight into the monster, and then you can plug whatever 1/4" headphone you prefer into the receiver.

YES!! To be able to switch between different setting combinations would be great. The GPX is good to a point, but you still have to switch mode and timing, so two switches and maybe a menu tweak. With the GPZ interface you could as an example have: 1. General search mode: General/Difficult/Low Smooth/Sens 9/Ground Smoothing Off etc etc 2. Low mineral mode: HY/Normal/Smoothing Off/Sens 6/Patch etc etc 3. Z19 mode: Extra Deep/Normal/Low Smoothing/Sens 8..... Be a lot easier to flick between 1, 2 & 3 than it is to go through and make all the changes individually

Yes, but you will get 2 coils as standard and wireless headphones in that price, which means the fact that the whole unit is waterproof is just icing on the cake.

Wow, thanks for that.

Oh for sure. In very mild wash, you can put a new gen spiral coil on the 3500, run it in Sens and Deep and it will pretty much match what a GPX can do, minus the extra bit you can squeeze out of a 4500 and 5000. I hope you didn't just leave your 3000 in Sensitive though, as Normal has a clear advantage over the more conductive bits. Even some as small as say a flat half gram piece.

The tracking has always been good, it is just the danger of tracking out a target is always greater when using a mono coil. Small low conductive targets, and the higher the mineralisation, the greater the risk! On the SD2200 series, the tracking was a slower rate, and as the 2200 hates mono coils (except for really mild ground) most people never took it out of tracking. On the GP extreme and 3000 it was a faster rate, I guess it had to be because the machines were more sensitive. The Level adjust allowed the user to control the tracking to some extent, but most found this confusing, so 3 x speeds were introduced on the 3500 (with the Level Adjust being pre-set). Using a DD coil, I have never had a nugget track out (that I've noticed), but have noticed several times using a Mono. Not instantaneous, maybe 5-7 sweeps and the target was totally gone. Re-balance off to the side, check again, and yep target still there. Dig it up, and sure enough it's gold. This is reduced with the slower tracking speeds, but the only way to remove the risk all-together is to use Fixed and re-balance as often as you can remember.

Here's what worked for me when I was swinging a 3500. These settings will work equally well with small - medium mono coils and the stock DD coil. Set your controls to the following settings: Signal control - just off maximum (in noisy environments you may need to turn it down to 2 o'clock) Tone - the highest setting you are comfortable with. My preference was 3-4 o'clock Volume - 4 o'clock Threshold - just audible, but smooth - if it is breaking up it is too low Coil - Mono Soil - Sensitive Ground - Fixed If the ground allows it you can use Deep boost, but if it upsets the stability of the threshold, use Normal. Ground Balance as often as practical, and avoid running in Tracking if at all possible. Perform an Auto Tune as often as necessary. The most important aspect to the tuning process is to ensure the coil is held motionless. The easiest method I find is to turn the coil at 90 deg. and find the loudest direction of interference, and then place the whole detector on the ground, with the coil still vertical. With the GP 3500, you can keep the detector tuned by using the Manual Tune control. When you get a faint signal that you suspect may be a small nugget, play with the audio controls and see if a few small tweaks improve the signal response.

Thread recovery! Just had to bring this back up. What Dean says is spot on. Especially on the new generation of spiral wind coils, you don't want to overcook your Rx Gain. Smaller coils, and lower Rx Gain are you two best combats against EMI. Oh, and the old DD coil that most seem to have abandoned

Excellent. What settings were you using?

A bit of light viewing for you

Many moons ago I found a 0.06g nugget on my GP extreme running an 11" mono. The GPX5000 and modern coils are much more sensitive, so capable of some very small stuff. 6" Detech mono, 8x6" Sadie and 14x9" Evo are the best three coils I've tried on the really small stuff. 8" Detech and Commander monos are a very close second. The older 8" Super Gold Search mono's are also a great coil, particularly in hotter ground. Re timings, on the very small bits I find Fine-Gold has an edge over Sens Extra, but Sens Extra will punch deeper if the ground isn't hindering it. With any of the new spiral wound coils, Fine Gold and Enhance are so good, that I only ever try Sens Extra if the ground is really mild.

So you might not be beach PI'ing for two years potentially No consideration for the Tesoro Sand Shark or Whites Surfmaster PI, or do you strictly need GB? The SDC is an excellent beach PI, especially if you wish to work narrow gutters slowly, rather than gobble up big swabs of ground, as the SDC needs a very slow sweep. I think most seem to forget that the SDC is waterproof, and has 3 x Salt settings. The main drawback for me and why I don't use it more often is that on 70% of my local beaches the EMI can be pretty severe. There is no Cancel switch or DD coil option or other options to tame it. GPX5000 in Salt-Gold timing is a beast, but you have to be really careful with the water, and obviously can't hose it down after a hunt I do like the sound of the Manta - it sort of reminds me of the SD series. If FT can put it in a good package it will be a winner.

I have no issue with S-rods as long as the handle angle isn't way off. I nearly always change my hand grips as my hands are quite large, but if grips are too hard to remove I normally just wrap padded tennis racquet grip over the existing handle. I did that with my Gold Racer and felt just right for me. The Kruzer external battery slides into the armrest assembly, so this would be easy to adapt to other shafts. You'd just need to drill out and tap the right size hole as the armrest is held in by a screw. But the bracket that holds the control box on, that I'm not sure about.

Yes, indeed. Also would help if the water has good clarity, so you can see the target ID. ID and Vibration would be all you need, but be interesting to see what underwater headphones Makro come up with.