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I was always interested to see the differences with a new model 19kHz Fisher detector, they seem to slip in updates to firmware over time as they work things out, and do other changes to enhance performance and the 19kHz Fishers are really good detectors. With my Gold Bug Pro's being quite old now, I wanted to compare them to a newer model and see if they had fixed the problems I knew about with mine, and thankfully they have. My Bugs were bought when I first started detecting, I bought them at a Fisher stockist in Australia as NZ's dealer had no stock and went out of business shortly after, I did manage to get my GBP 10x5" Coil from him before he went down. The trio What I noticed immediately was the Gold Bug Pro's ran at 100% gain more stable than the F19, at first I was disappointed by this, especially when the larger Detech Ultimate 13" coil went on the F19 it was noticeable how much more unstable the detector was, 90% gain on the F19 was as stable as 100% gain on the GBP. This is the coil I noticed it most on, the smaller Nel snake both ran at 100% gain fine. With a bit of further testing I've established the F19 has a higher overall gain than the GBP's, this gives increased target sensitivity and depth, so, as a prospecting machine the F19 (new model) is better than my Gold Bug Pro's (many years old models) When the GBP is running at 100% gain with the Nel Snake, the F19 with the same coil at 100% gain slightly betters its performance on tiny gold. These were my test nuggets for comparison. I also put it up against a much higher performance detector on small gold, the Gold Bug 2, while the audio on the GB2 is much louder on the targets, the F19 was able to give near equal performance as the nuggets were bigger, and the smaller ones the GB2 did better, but the difference wasn't as dramatic as I was expecting. I retired my GBP's from prospecting detectors a long time ago, but it was a pleasant surprise to see they still do pretty well, especially with the Snake, it gave a significant boost over the Nel Sharpshooter (Cors Fortune) coil, and of course the 10x5" stock coil on small gold. The other problem I had with my Gold Bug Pro's was the 99% silver large coin wrap around to iron issue that the Gold Bug Pro had, I am not sure if they have fixed this in newer models but it was a problem on both of my Gold Bug Pros. Here is a video of the problem I took when I first discovered it. I was able to fix the problem with my Gold Bug Pro's by opening them up and adjusting a POT, I was careful when doing so, it was ever the slightest turn to get the silver wrap around to go away, I also tested using a ferrite and small lead targets to ensure they were falling into the right place before and after doing the adjustment. Here is the same Bug once I'd adjusted the POT on a few different large silver coins. Working well now. I found this comment on a Youtube video about the F19 and silver coins by someone, they indicated Fisher had fixed up the silver coin problem on the F19, so I tested it out, and indeed it is fixed. My UK 99% silver crown test coin now comes up in a good spot, this was with the same Snake coil. I'm going to now re-tweak my GBP's so they come up the same numbers as the F19 by adjusting the POT again, as I'm sure Fisher worked out a better spot to put it than I have, mine was guess work, they would have the proper knowledge to adjust it correctly for best results. Now the odd thing is when Fisher compare the two on their website they say this They completely neglect that the F19 has better notching, a backlight, volume control and this new higher sensitivity than the Bug, at least the Bugs I have as the big differences between it and the Bug. The other odd thing is in their specifications for it on their website they say it takes two AA batteries, buzzzz wrong! It takes a 9v. Fisher really needs to get their act together, you can't even download the GBP or F19 manual from their website, dead links, and to give incorrect information about models is just wrong, how could they think it takes 2 AA batteries? Some bad cut and paste work going on no doubt. So, as it stands, unless the GBP has improved since I bought mine someone would be crazy to pay for a GBP, especially if it still costs more like it historically has just for the name, as the F19 is significantly better, I think I may even start using it. By the way, you can check your Bug firmware version by having it in disc mode, holding down the pinpoint/GG button when you fire it up, mine both come up version 4, and to check it on the F19 you hold down the pinpoint button while in disc mode when you turn it on, not the menu button, and my F19 is version 3. I wish we could see a changelog of the firmware updates for both detectors.

Curious if anyone has experience with both, and if there is any performance advantage to either of them.

Would like to hear people's experiences with the larger coil on the gb2. I currently just have the 6" coil, and have considered adding the 10" for more coverage in some areas. Is it worth it?

I've got a goldbug 2 that fades out after running it over a target a few times. It fades in volume and becomes silent, until I power it off and back on again. The stronger the target, the faster it fades. It's currently at fisher waiting for repair. Just curios if anyone else has ever had this problem.

Has anyone had any experience with the Gold Bug 2 14" elliptical coil? I know most only use the tiny concentric so I was wondering if anyone's even used the bigger coil? What would you consider the benefit to this coil on the Gold Bug 2? Does it provide depth other coils don't? Would it be beneficial to own? I ask as it's now become quite cheap, dealers in the pacific region are virtually clearing it out at heavy discounts so I figured it might be worth snapping up before it's impossible to buy in this part of the world, while I can still get it locally with the associated discounts it's worthwhile but buying it EVER from the USA is just a no-go.... Far far far far far far far too expensive to go that route so If I miss out locally now, I miss out forever as if the dealers are clearing it out it means they don't intend to restock it. If I did buy it my GB2 coil collection would be complete, although I've never even used my 10" elliptical for the Bug, I like that little concentric too much.

Hello All, It's fantastic to find your forum to get together and share ideas and information about this fantastic hobby. I been out of it for years and now am getting a chance to get back into it. I had run across a guy that has a Fisher Gold Bug for sale. I had never heard of them but I looked at his detector. It's in pretty decent shape, it's missing a knobs and arm strap but fires right up and does seem to discriminate the different coins. It only has a 5" coil. My questions are, are they a decent detector? Where might I find a replacement knob and arm strap? Also, in regards to the disc, what would be a decent disc to look for to gain more coverage area looking more for coins and such. If you seen a detector such as this on the market, what would you give as a price for this unit? Any help that you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank You. Arlin

Has anyone on this forum gone about the process of designing their own custom coils to go with some of the more popular detector models on the market? I only have a Gold Bug 2 at the moment and it does alright for what I purchased it for but I was wondering if I might be able to get some more coverage and detection ability out of it when I take it down to the beach I live near to see if the rich people have lost anything. It does just fine out in the desert with the stock 6" coil and I have never felt the need to buy one of the larger coils as I just do not think those would really fit how I most use the detector out in the desert. Anyway I obviously am considering trying to build a couple different sizes and geometry coils to use with my GB2 but also would love to hear about what other people have done with other detectors. Would love to get a little more guidance than my sorta basic electronics knowledge, intuition, and searching the web.

Hey guys, I have been using my Gold Bug 2 out in Franconia, Arizona, mainly for hunting meteorites. I have found a few small pieces there and am really enjoying this machine, as it is extremely sensitive and screams when it goes over a chondrite. With that being said, I am still a beginner with this machine and would like to ask for advice when dealing with hot ground and hot rocks. There are tons of hot basalt rocks, ironstones, and other hot rocks at Franconia, which makes for very noisy hunts. It gets frustrating as I start out because my machine seems to pick up everything and it's tough to differentiate what the sounds are sometimes. Do you guys have any tips or suggestions for the best settings to use for this machine, and what coil size is best? I am currently using the 10" coil, I feel like this gives me some more coverage than the 6.5." The settings I use when at Franconia are as follows: -Sensitivity and volume: 10 -I ground balance the machine every hour or so as I am hunting, pretty easy to do on this machine. -I don't use the iron disc mode or the audio boost. The meteorites I am looking for contain a lot of nickel and iron so I'm not sure if these settings would help me or hurt me. -I keep the default setting for mineralization. I have gotten better with detecting and have heard great reviews of this machine. It is noisy on hot ground, but when I do swing over a meteorite, or even trash, foil, bullets, wire, it screams. Would like to hear what y'all would suggest and some settings that could be modified for using in hot ground. -A.J.

Does anyone know if it is possible the change-out the quartz crystal on the Goldbug 1?

The mod I did like on the Gold Bug 2 was Gary Hudson's sensitivity modification, unfortunately though I lost contact with Gary years ago and this modified one needs fixed. I do not have the paper work either or I would try to fix it. Gerry McMullen had one when we went detecting together about 20 years ago and he did really good with it, so I finally broke down and got one. Anyone remember what all the switches did?

I won an Original Fisher Gold Bug in a Club raffle last Saturday. I bought $90 worth of tickets at 6 for $5. Although the winner came from a batch from a previous meeting! I could have saved $40. I tested it out and it seems to work fine. I’m more familiar with the GB2. It came with the White’s Koss E-9000 headphones but there’s only sound on one side. I need a set with a compatibility switch to hear in both. Back in the day both Fisher and Garrett were mono (one black stripe on the plug), but the sound came out on both sides. Stereo (two stripes) will only work on one side without the switch. It came with the original box too! Thank you, Steve, for having the Owner’s Manual available for download as well as other Information! Walt

I got a new GB2, 6 inch coil off ebay but it will not fit the GB2 I have. The coil ears are barely 1/16 inch thick and too narrow space between them looks like.My GB2 is one I got from Steve H, a while back. The coil ears on my 10 inch coil are quite thick by comparison. So, did I get ripped off or what happened? If I use brute force to make the ears fit the pole, it will break for sure looks like. -Tom V.

Can someone with a working GB2 or the original GB 6.5" coil check with a meter what resistance you get between what pins. I received what looks to be now or very slightly used 6.5 inch coil, problem is I get no response to metal/gold with it. I checked my working 10" coil and a new (seems to be working) 14" coil and they share the same pinout and similar resistances. I'm using cheap cables and my meter only has one decimal resolution so lets say +/- 0.1k resistance. Edit 2: Not a GB2 coil. Real GB2 coil has similar resistance and same pinout as the 10 and 14inch coil. Any one want to purchase a 6.5" coil for an unknown machine? It's brand spanking new. I would guess it's a gb or gb pro or a gb clone coil. Edit 1: I'm starting to think it's a coil for the original Gold Bug that was purposely or accidentally mislabeled. Anyone with the original gold bug coil care to test their coil for me? 6.5" coil <not working> 1-3 = 6.3 ohm 2-4 = 29.7 ohm Nothing grounded 10" coil 2-3 = 2.2 ohm 4-5 = 18.7 ohm 3-Grounded 14" coil 2-3 = 2.5 ohm 4-5 = 18.0 ohm 3-Grounded

Hello to all, I am currently using a goldbug 2. On the creek in the Yuba River drainage where I am using it, there is a lot of exposed bedrock, or alternating gravel and bedrock. I am finding that the bedrock ground balances far different from the gravels. This is a bit of a problem for me, since when I ground balance to the bedrock, any of the gravel sounds off loudly. When I ground balance to the gravels, then pass the coil over bedrock, the detector goes null, or quiet. Seems this contrast is giving me a lot of false positive reads. I have found a fair amount of flakes and small pickers, but feel that I may be missing good targets, since the bedrock and gravels ground balance so so differently. Any suggestions on how to deal with this would be much appreciated. Jeffree

Is it me or does it seem like the cable for the GB2 is about twice as long as it needs to be? I guess I understand that you are supposed to be able to mount the control box to yourself. Has anyone shortened theirs? Would this cause any issues with the detector?

I've had a Gold Bug for 5 or 6 months now. Intermittently when I press the "+" button to increase discrimination it switches into pinpoint mode, will stay there until I release the button and re-press and will then work fine (usually). I've ensured my fat little finger is no where near the pin point button. Been telling myself its likely just some software glitch, annoying, but I can live with it vs. sending it in for repair. Part of me says "get it fixed before the warranty expires stupid". Well cooler weather is here and I will be sending it in. Just curious if any of you have had the same problem?

As a lot of people don't bother checking out the First Texas thread these days as very little happens there I figured I'd post this here too, they finally upgraded the Gold Bug 2, with a small facelift to bring it up to the late 1990's 🙂 Nothing performance wise seems to be changed but it has a screen now! You can see the original post by Cipher here I also put a Youtube video on that thread where a guy tests it against various detectors including the GM1000 and GPX 6000. He tests it against his Nox but has it setup incorrectly for nugget detecting so ignore that segment of his video 🙂

Although I’m not a prospector and haven’t used a gold machine, I did find this interesting that the Gold Bug 2 has received a digital target ID makeover. Here’s a photo from Amazon. There’s also an official ad from Fisher that I lost track of when the site was down. I’m now wondering if maybe the CZ-3D will get the same.

Under "meet and Greet" ,my first posting, I had mentioned I am needing to get a new detector as my ol'Garrett had died (but I have since fixed,yeah!). Was torn between the Equinox 540, looks like a pretty nice machine but as I have an original Gold Bug and know what it can do I sure wanted the new Gold Bug DP but the price is a bit painful for my budget ( unemployed). Well my new GB arrived yesterday! Took it out for a quickie last night just to get acquainted with it, to a sand pit, sure wouldn't expect much old goodies as the topsoil was ripped off years ago to mine sand. Been abandoned for a while now though, kids partying, stolen cars getting burnt, target practice, etc but hey...stuff gets lost everywhere...'ya never know. Wasnt there 5 minutes and got a big heavy gold ear ring! Whoo-Hoo! Few minutes later, silver ear ring! Looks gold-ish in the picture but in real life silver colored. Well excitement wore off after looking at it under an eye loupe, plated junk and slightly magnetic but gold just the same. Also found an electrical connector with gold pins and 3 copper pennies.

I will be retiring in the coming months and am preparing to get back into prospecting. My plan is to go "high tech". My view is that I may want a VLF to search for small targets then switch to a PI to punch down deeper for any other potential targets over the same area. I'm leaning strongly toward the Gold Bug 2 for my first detector. I understand after doing some research and watching a bunch of videos on YouTube that the GB2 really excels at recovering small gold. My question is, considering it's operating frequency, what kind of depth is possible with the GB2 and considering ground mineralization?

Although we own Minelabs-Equinox, GP's & other detectors, more and more often my brother Jim and I are using the Gold Bug 2. We've discovered that when we find a patch and after the small nuggets are found, tiny pieces still remain. At the end stage, we can get even more pieces by raking the area. Jim made me this collapsible rake, from a tiny collapsible four tine rake and a welded-on eight tine piece. I can carry it in my backpack and it looks like just the tool for those tiny pieces.

I have a 1990s era Fisher Gold Bug, the original 19 kHz analog version, long since replaced by newer models. The old 19 kHz model was not particularly hot, but it did have an ability to ground balance out some hot rocks that newer and hotter VLF machines struggle with. Original Fisher Gold Bug Data & Reviews The detector came with a 10" elliptical search coil. I have a couple very rare 3.5" round coils that Fisher made for these models before the little 4" x 6" elliptical replaced it. It's the smallest search coil I've ever owned for a commercially sold metal detector, making the unit into more of a probe than a normal detector. The threshold was cutting out if the detector was bumped, something loose, so it's been sitting idle for a very long time. I decided it was doing no good as is, and by chance had an opportunity to call Felix at Fisher recently. Felix is another old-timer in the industry like myself, who I have not talked to since I left my old dealership in Alaska over eight years ago. Anyway, since the detector is still actually functional Felix figured they could give it a good refurbish and fix whatever is loose. The main thing I wanted, however, was to get the detector tuned for the 3.5" coil. Most people do not know it, but analog Gold Bugs are hand tuned for every coil. The coil they ship with is tuned for the detector, or should I say the detector is tuned for the coil. Accessory coils may or may not be a perfect match if the original coil is swapped out for something else. Long story short is I am asking them to match the detector to the 3.5" coil as well as is possible. The original Gold Bug is a genuine classic. Prior to it, detectors were large square boxes with extremely poor ergonomics. The Bug features a very compact control box that is removeable from a S rod, enabling easy chest or hip mounting. The design seems normal now, but you have to have used what came before to see the genius of what Fisher did with the Gold Bug. 19 kHz was also a radically high frequency at the time, as people were just catching on to the idea that higher frequencies are better for small gold nuggets than the lower frequencies that were the norm of the time. The 19 kHz Gold Bug replaced the 4.5 kHz VLF-660 Mother Lode as Fishers top nugget detector. Frankly, Fisher was not seriously in the game prior to this point, with Garrett probably the leader in VLF gold detectors at the time. A new company named Minelab was just starting to sell detectors in Australia, and had yet to really make a name for themselves. Anyway, control box and coil boxed up and on the way to El Paso. I'll let you all know how long it takes and what the result is. Here is a picture of one of the coils. The Gold Bug coils first used a gray dual lead cable, which was replaced very early on with the stouter black cable used to this day. This is the older coil of the two, though it also has less wear. The one I sent in has the heavier cable but is in poor condition. I need to reinforce the coil ears when I get it back since one is cracking. But I decided I wanted to use the coil with the heavier cable, with this older one serving as backup until I sort this all out. And in case anyone is wondering, the old 19 kHz coils do not work on the newer digital versions of the 19 kHz Gold Bug. 3.5" round search coil for original analog Gold Bug To reiterate what a radical design advance the Gold Bug was at the time, here is a picture of the detector it replaced, the 4.5 kHz Mother Lode... Fisher VLF-660 Mother Lode metal detector And the new 19 kHz Gold Bug...

So I found this Gold Bug detector for sale. The owner says it is the GB2 which it appears to be by the housing, but I think it may be an earlier version (?). Id appreciate if anyone could give me some info on this unit. In particular, my questions are: What frequency does it run on? Is it as sensitive as the GB2? Is this maybe something similar to the CZ3D where the older models are more desirable/better? Thanks guys. Jon