Reg Wilson & Jp GPX 6000 Commentary & Tips

[Reg Wilson]

Firstly my thanks to the guys at Coiltek.

After dreadful weather here in central Victoria, and recovering from surgery, this morning dawned clear and sunny. Nice hot coffee and before the dew was off the ground I had the 6000 cranked up. Rudimentary reading of the manual the previous day saw the new detector humming sweetly after a short warm up. JP had been most helpful with a few tips on the local Finders forum, so it was quite easy to feel a certain amount of confidence as I ground balanced and paired up the headphones, which are surprisingly good compared to some of Minelab's previous offerings.

There is a shallow but substantial lead running west to east across my fifty acre property which yielded a small amount of gold to my GPZ a few years back. I had gridded out the most promising area at the time, so it seemed obvious that this would be a good place to test my new toy. Not bothering to take a pick I headed off towards the east end of the block.

Where on earth did these signals come from? A number were I am sure just shotgun pellets, but a few were at a reasonable depth as I tilted the coil to get some idea of just how deep. The more interesting signals I marked with boot scuffs and will check out within the next few days. I did not get to go back for my pick as a visitor turned up to have me check his detector.

Initial impressions; Pretty damned good.

[Steve Herschbach]

Well look what the wind blew in. Welcome back Reg. 

[Norvic]

Aye welcome Reg, we thought the Z picked up scraps at crazy depths.

[Reg Wilson]

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good Steve.

[Jonathan Porter]

Welcome back Reg you rascal. 😀 

My post from Finders for forum readers:

What’s there to say about the 6000? Not a lot really 🧐 It’s been designed to be used by just about anyone, so my advice is to just switch it on and go detecting. 😝

Use the Velcro cable ties, one with a nice coil lead loop near the coil (just above the point where the coil edge touches the shaft when laid flat) and the other Velcro between the upper lock knuckle and the handle to prevent cable movement near the connector. Leave a little looseness in the cable between the two, too tight and there will be noise created by stiction on the lead when the shaft flexes. 

I do not recommend using the inbuilt speaker but I say that about every gold detector with a speaker as I am not a fan of the audio source moving around, plus I hate the 6000 speaker with a passion because it is Shyte. Do not use the Quest Tx device or any BT Tx near the control box, the 6000 is super sensitive to electronic devices being anywhere near the control box, mobile phones included (especially when phone signal is weak). 

Do NOT be tempted to drive too much audio volume to achieve target sensitivity, I strongly suggest starting with the Volume low and gradually increase it as it is easier to adjust your brain that way rather than the other way around. It is much better to run a low volume and increase the sensitivity (I start at full Manual mode and adjust back from there). 

The BT headphones have a lot of volume range so it’s a bit of juggle to get the volumes correct between unit and headphones. Start at 2 on the control box and halfway on the headphones. If your right handed put the volume control side of the headphones on your right ear and opposite for lefties. This cuts way down on dropped audio packets. 

The 6000 takes a while to stabilise from a cold start so boot it up and leave it running for a bit while you gear up, you will notice the threshold is extremely dominant and target sensitivity is drowned out. When I see someone on YouTube turning on a 6000 and immediately waving over a target I just shake my head. You will also notice the threshold takes a while to stabilise after performing an auto tune so give it a few seconds to stabilise before checking suspect targets etc. 

In extremely saturable ground the 6000 has two ground balance heights, one is a general height at usual detect height levels in most ground types but in extremely saturable HOT ground there is a 40mm to ground GB that requires a bit more care, slow careful pumping of the coil in this zone will allow for careful close to ground detecting in extremely variable ground. 

A good operator from the VLF era will soon work out you need to be on the Quick-Trak button on a regular basis, the 6000 is extremely sensitive as such it will express audio responses over variable ground that the auto GB will not keep up with, GOOD operators understand this intuitively and keep on the QT button as par for course. Do not get sloppy with the QT process, take your time and move the coil in a measured and controlled way, the days of a quick pump and walk in hot ground have long gone, that’s the price we pay for the incredible sensitivity of the GPX 6000 platform. Adhere to these precepts and you will soon discover the 6000 is nigh on as sensitive to small gold as a high frequency VLF (I kid you not, I personally do not chase the fly-chit stuff but you can easily find ‘wet your finger to pick up gold’ with this detector). 

The shaft needs to be firmly held to prevent twisting below the lock knuckle when tightening, so hold the shaft ABOVE the knuckle your turning with one hand and tighten with the other till it is firm, repeat the process on the lower one. I leave mine loose enough that I can place my foot on the coil and apply a firm twisting pressure to align the coil with the control box. If you find it is twisting out of alignment during detecting or when lifting the coil while you scrape at a suspect target with your boot then just tighten the offending knuckle using the above described method. 

In Quiet ground Auto+ has the ability to achieve more sensitivity than the manual modes, by default the Auto modes are threshold off so you need to long press the Ground Type button for 2.5 seconds to get threshold. (this will revert to threshold OFF on a power cycle BTW). Small target sensitivity comes from the Difficult mode, so in Normal the timing is a blend of Normal and Difficult. If the gold is primarily tiny then there will be little difference between Normal and Difficult so do-not unnecessarily put up with ground noise using Normal in the hopes of achieving more sensitivity on tiny gold. There is also no need to re-ground balance when going from one timing to the other as both timings are ground balanced in the background regardless of the timing selected (Thanks to GeoSense) 😊

JP

[Gold Catcher]

5 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good Steve.

 Let it be a wind that brings wisdom and knowledge from a legend. Welcome back, Reg!!

[Norvic]

14 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Welcome back Reg you rascal. 😀 

My post from Finders for forum readers:

What’s there to say about the 6000? Not a lot really 🧐 It’s been designed to be used by just about anyone, so my advice is to just switch it on and go detecting. 😝

Use the Velcro cable ties, one with a nice coil lead loop near the coil (just above the point where the coil edge touches the shaft when laid flat) and the other Velcro between the upper lock knuckle and the handle to prevent cable movement near the connector. Leave a little looseness in the cable between the two, too tight and there will be noise created by stiction on the lead when the shaft flexes. 

I do not recommend using the inbuilt speaker but I say that about every gold detector with a speaker as I am not a fan of the audio source moving around, plus I hate the 6000 speaker with a passion because it is Shyte. Do not use the Quest Tx device or any BT Tx near the control box, the 6000 is super sensitive to electronic devices being anywhere near the control box, mobile phones included (especially when phone signal is weak). 

Do NOT be tempted to drive too much audio volume to achieve target sensitivity, I strongly suggest starting with the Volume low and gradually increase it as it is easier to adjust your brain that way rather than the other way around. It is much better to run a low volume and increase the sensitivity (I start at full Manual mode and adjust back from there). 

The BT headphones have a lot of volume range so it’s a bit of juggle to get the volumes correct between unit and headphones. Start at 2 on the control box and halfway on the headphones. If your right handed put the volume control side of the headphones on your right ear and opposite for lefties. This cuts way down on dropped audio packets. 

The 6000 takes a while to stabilise from a cold start so boot it up and leave it running for a bit while you gear up, you will notice the threshold is extremely dominant and target sensitivity is drowned out. When I see someone on YouTube turning on a 6000 and immediately waving over a target I just shake my head. You will also notice the threshold takes a while to stabilise after performing an auto tune so give it a few seconds to stabilise before checking suspect targets etc. 

In extremely saturable ground the 6000 has two ground balance heights, one is a general height at usual detect height levels in most ground types but in extremely saturable HOT ground there is a 40mm to ground GB that requires a bit more care, slow careful pumping of the coil in this zone will allow for careful close to ground detecting in extremely variable ground. 

A good operator from the VLF era will soon work out you need to be on the Quick-Trak button on a regular basis, the 6000 is extremely sensitive as such it will express audio responses over variable ground that the auto GB will not keep up with, GOOD operators understand this intuitively and keep on the QT button as par for course. Do not get sloppy with the QT process, take your time and move the coil in a measured and controlled way, the days of a quick pump and walk in hot ground have long gone, that’s the price we pay for the incredible sensitivity of the GPX 6000 platform. Adhere to these precepts and you will soon discover the 6000 is nigh on as sensitive to small gold as a high frequency VLF (I kid you not, I personally do not chase the fly-chit stuff but you can easily find ‘wet your finger to pick up gold’ with this detector). 

The shaft needs to be firmly held to prevent twisting below the lock knuckle when tightening, so hold the shaft ABOVE the knuckle your turning with one hand and tighten with the other till it is firm, repeat the process on the lower one. I leave mine loose enough that I can place my foot on the coil and apply a firm twisting pressure to align the coil with the control box. If you find it is twisting out of alignment during detecting or when lifting the coil while you scrape at a suspect target with your boot then just tighten the offending knuckle using the above described method. 

In Quiet ground Auto+ has the ability to achieve more sensitivity than the manual modes, by default the Auto modes are threshold off so you need to long press the Ground Type button for 2.5 seconds to get threshold. (this will revert to threshold OFF on a power cycle BTW). Small target sensitivity comes from the Difficult mode, so in Normal the timing is a blend of Normal and Difficult. If the gold is primarily tiny then there will be little difference between Normal and Difficult so do-not unnecessarily put up with ground noise using Normal in the hopes of achieving more sensitivity on tiny gold. There is also no need to re-ground balance when going from one timing to the other as both timings are ground balanced in the background regardless of the timing selected (Thanks to GeoSense) 😊

JP

Crikey, JP your right again, you`ll make a dinosaur yet, I suspect those of us who came from the VLF days will find the 6K easy as. Not over driving the audio and slow coil control are the go for sure, the exact opposite portrayed by most of those vids out there, but that`s not new, before vids every gold field caravan park had a xter knocking anything new

[Rob Allison]

Hey Reg,

   Great to hear your initial field report on the Minelab GPX 6000.  I have followed your post for many years on the forums and know you always have been a larger coil guy and depth (from what I gathered).   

That being said, keeping as much as we can similar, despite the different technologies, what is your overall opinion on larger gold at depth between the two?  I'm well aware that the GPX 6000 is going to be better at small gold and there is more small gold out there for the most part. 

This question might be too early in the game for you to answer as it sounds like you just got the Minelab GPX 6000.  

Wishing you much success and hope to hear more successful stories as it gets over more gold.

Rob

[Jonathan Porter]

On 6/12/2021 at 1:00 PM, Rob Allison said:

..........keeping as much as we can similar, despite the different technologies, what is your overall opinion on larger gold at depth between the two?  I'm well aware that the GPX 6000 is going to be better at small gold and there is more small gold out there for the most part. 

Rob

Hope you don’t mind me stepping in here to offer an opinion? 🧐 

Hark you’re mind back to when the GPZ7000 was released, at the time the GPX5000 was the top dog for gold detecting which the 7000 then pushed out of the way.  Over time the vast majority of 7000 owners have taken advantage of the better depth capability on ‘fast time constant’ targets rather than the outright depth advantage on large gold the tech has on offer.

This is largely due to the gold fields just not having the right conditions for many large nuggets still being left in the ground at depth thanks to the inverse square law. As an example a large nugget at 3 feet detectable by the 5000 and the 7000 does not need to go much deeper for the 5000 to sign off but alas thanks to the inverse square law there’s not a lot more depth required for the 7000 to sign off as well. 😞 Once nuggets get beyond a certain range from the coil it becomes a highly specialised operator to be able to take advantage of it. Therefore the vast majority of GPZ owners spend a very large proportion of their time chasing the more friable ‘fast time constant’ gold that is still well within range that is missed by switching field-collapsing PI machines. Add in the weight factor of the 7000 and it soon starts to become a more specialised machine that requires a lot of effort from the operator. 

In reality the 6000 is on the same performance curve as the GPX5000 when it comes to large gold at depth although at present there are only a few coils available if you want to go head to head. Where the 6000 does shine, and very brightly at that, is ergonomics and fast time constant sensitivity. I see no real need to focus on the 6000 outright depth capability on large gold because we have the 7000 for that plus there have been plenty of 5000’s with a variety of coil sizes go over the goldfields in the past even to present day. It is however good to know when you are using the 6000 for what it was intended for it will let you know if a decent piece is lurking, not as good as a 7000 but still just as good as the 5K. 

Just my 0.2 cents

JP

[Reg Wilson]

I have only have had a few hours with the 6000 and am still in the learning stage. No gold as yet, but have dug a lot of targets missed by other machines.

After reading a number of posts on the Bluetooth headphones, about pairing and battery life, I decided to see if there is an alternative to have as a back up. I did find the pairing a bit fiddly, although the sound was quite good with more than enough volume, and very comfortable.

Being a big fan of the Quest Mate Wireless system, I decided to experiment on the feasibility of using this set up which would enable the use noise cancelling headphones or ear buds. As it turned out the wireless system worked quite well with the Tx mounted with Velcro on the arm cuff. This is far enough away from the electronics to avoid interference. The Rx has a volume control that gave ample sound when dialled up, and the n/c phones when switched on also gave a slight volume increase.

I now have the security of knowing that I have a viable option to the factory Bluetooth should it at any time give problems.