GPZ 8000 Rumors

[Lunk]

Again...

Please, nobody say they would be willing to pay as much as the GPZ 7000!!!😅
I remember when the GPZ 7000 was but a rumor, one or more posted that they would be willing to pay $10,000 U.S. for the next Minelab flagship gold detector if it had the features they wanted. And then the GPZ 7000 was released at the exact same phenomenal price! Coincidence perhaps, but I think not. 

[Steve Herschbach]

I’m not expecting much magic. The GPZ 7000 was the leap to Zero Voltage Technology (ZVT), just like the SD 2000 was the leap to Multi Period Sensing (MPS). For many years after the SD 2000 we saw refining of the basic technology but maximum depth on large gold did not change much. ZVT basically filled in the gaps by specifically targeting types of gold that all the previous MPS detectors were weak on. No doubt whatever comes next will refine ZVT, but the major gains seen by the switch in basic technology are likely already baked in. For those of you who have been around the block a few times you know what I am talking about. How much difference did you see going from the GP 3000 to the GP 3500? Or going from the GPX 4000 to the GPX 4500? Improvements for sure, but incremental, not revolutionary. But at every single turn the price went up with each new model.

I’m not trying to be a bummer but I got this sense with the GPZ 7000 I was cleaning up leftovers and now after a few years of that even the leftovers are getting sparse. The real problem we face now is not the technology but gold geology itself. There are sound reasons why in desert placers and washed placer areas going deeper often does not reveal much more gold. 

I guess long story short is the gold is depleting out and the gains to be had with new detectors is depleting along with it. That being the case putting out astronomical sums of money for a new detector is an equation that does not add up any more for a lot of us. That is why for the last few years I have been advocating for lighter weight, less expensive detectors. My challenge at the link may have set a tough bar for both price and weight but I believe it is setting tough goals that makes us strive. It’s not always about hitting the goal but just trying as hard as you can to get there, and personally I’m done with machines that are too expensive or too heavy.

[Steve Herschbach]

I'll tell you manufacturers what I really need and am will to pay top dollar for. A detector as powerful as a GPZ but with 100% accurate ferrous discrimination. Even the best VLF detectors pick up too much flat steel and broken square nails in old mining areas. If there is a payday waiting for me it is in areas full of ferrous junk where a VLF does not go deep enough but a GPZ or PI will kill me digging junk. Forget more depth and give me genuine, accurate ferrous discrimination in a detector more powerful than the best VLF. For that, I will dig very deep into my wallet, and that's a promise.

[mn90403]

Steve,

You got it.  I woke up in the middle of the night thinking a similar thought. 

Discrimination with a PI.  I still might dig everything but I could see the ground and know there was something 'out of the ordinary' waiting for me to dig it.  I use the Nox this way and I'd do the same with a PI.

Mitchel

[Lanny]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I'll tell you manufacturers what I really need and am will to pay top dollar for. A detector as powerful as a GPZ but with 100% accurate ferrous discrimination. Even the best VLF detectors pick up too much flat steel and broken square nails in old mining areas. If there is a payday waiting for me it is in areas full of ferrous junk where a VLF does not go deep enough but a GPZ or PI will kill me digging junk. Forget more depth and give me genuine, accurate ferrous discrimination in a detector more powerful than the best VLF. For that, I will dig very deep into my wallet, and that's a promise.

I would love the same, nicely stated.

 

All the best,

Lanny

[Lunk]

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

For that, I will dig very deep into my wallet, and that's a promise.

Thanks Steve for cleverly circumventing a specific dollar amount. 🙂

[flakmagnet]

ML would be crazy to price their customers out of being able to afford (another), price-hiked "advancement." If they dare to use a price point that most can afford they will sell 'way more units and probably make more money in the long run. Also, and perhaps as important, they will earn an increased loyalty from what is now a rather disaffected customer base.

[1515Art]

At the least Minelab should consider if the rumors of a new and improved gpz should ever come to fruition, for a brief period of time consider offering those loyal customers whom trusted in the 40% mantra and believed in them enough to shell out 10K for the new technology only to a certain extent then to have the placer rug pulled out from under us when the price was dropped.

As Was pointed out patch cleaning is drying up and as I’m reading here price has a lot to do with quantity sold and those  of us that paid full price only to have an equal powered lower priced detector kind of speed up the process, I remember reading in one of Steve’s comments and pardon me if I’m misrepresenting he was both surprised and disappointed in how many would she’ll out 10K, add to that even more at 8K. Plinking down 10K only to have it depreciate like my car, cell phone and everything else these days is kind of the path we’ll paved, but of all the things I could pass on buying... new detectors then seem to fall pretty close to the top of my list. 

Another absurdly priced detector would need an olive branch as a shaft, or do things only dreamed of otherwise I’m just fine with the old heavyweight I’m into now, just need to fix the broken swing arm, bungee, get a new skid plate and hmmm, I really believed it when they sort of promised that little coil. 

[LowTide]

Welp......  Looking over their consumer product line, and based on their recent coin machine releases they now have Multi-Freq covered from $200USD to $2.5KUSD.  Not much to be more to be done in that area except for possibly a CTX replacement centered around an Equinox sized mechanical platform.   VLF gold detector they have a recent release, not much to be done there.  So a new GP model OK...that's a singular design project. 

They have a bunch of PHD level physicists and engineers hanging around which I'm sure they'd like to keep busy.  Aside from some possible Military de-mining items, about the only hole I can see in their lineup is a consumer level PI, as opposed to the High End Prospecting units.  A market busting Equinox equivalent PI seems like a pretty fair bet.  And by that I mean weight, waterproof, feature set, and price point.  And anyone who thinks that they don't have PI experience, technology, brainpower, and funding to once again disrupt the market is doing some wishful thinking. 

[mn90403]

As a detectorist with my nugget hat on I look at the 'price' and wonder how many nuggets this will help me find and that should 'pay for it' or what number of ounces I need to find to pay for it.  I bought the latest and greatest nugget detector AND the 'Dog Coil' based upon this premise.  I couldn't 'afford' to be without the best.

Several years later and neither one of these purchases is putting ounces of gold in my poke.  My next purchase will have to be a purchase of pleasure.  It is really frustrating to go out and get a skunk.  I can do that with my present detectors.

The appeal to me of the Xcoil at this point is that it seems to be finding previously unseen gold.  I know some who would say they could see that gold with the standard coil but I'll say that it still the Xcoil appeal.  Minelab will have to appeal to that same sense within me as a nugget detectorist no matter what the price or I'll just keep what I have.

Why would they come out with a new detector that would quickly fail or become another 'dog?'  I doubt they will but we've failed to understand a lack of a smaller coil to extend the life of the 7000 as well so ...

How much tiny and lager gold is left to be found in beaten up patches?  Much less than was there 20 years ago with lesser technology.  I miss the working GPS.