Goldseekers VLF 12000

[eftihis09]

Does anyone have information about the Goldseekers VLF 12000 metal detector? Manual, spare parts...

 

[Norvic]

Crikey, that goes back a bit. Could be wrong here but there was some gossip around then(last century!!!!) that machine was the beginnings of ML of OZ.

[argyle]

The 12000 was the second unit made by a newly formed very small company named Goldseekers Electronics in South Australia.
The first unit made was the 9000.
Have you got the 8" or so coil with it?(I never measured the exact size)
The 3D refers to the three operating modes, all metal manual tuning, all metal auto tuning, and discrimination.
Like most detectors that were decent, they have a place for collecting, even for use if the alloy's inside haven't suffered corrosion or the brittle coil leads haven't degraded.

I never received a manual when I bought them new, merely a Thankyou letter and a quick run down of each function on a single page. They may have printed a short users manual near the end of production, but I have never sighted one or ever heard about one. 

You'll notice the functions on the unit are the same functions on the top range American detectors at that time, very early 80's.
This was no mistake of course, as they had to start somewhere.
The 12000's handled themselves as well as any other unit at that time, although the ground balance wandered badly, and the re-tune was only passable...but most 'gold detectors' did then. 
With the range of coil sizes available on the Garretts especially, the 12000's lacked that extra advantage.
The blue Whites that were being modded for gold work, and the mods done to the Garretts, left the 12000 behind a touch.
The 12000 was an excellent coin hunter just working off the tone, isolate and size a target. But the discrimination was below par in comparison to the American detectors.

The advancement came when the Goldseekers Electronics company received an injection of funds and became Minelab.
Then the following unit was the 15000 Goldseekers made in a few variants, and handled hot ironstone ground better than any other detectors and carried a smoother ground balance. Much improved.
The 15000 went through a few component changes and handle button was replaced with a flatter rubber protective push button.
If you are collecting or using these, stay away from blue box models named 15000 IC, as these were horribly correlated with a rotten ground balance. They were made for distribution through a hardware/market chain in SA at the time, and corners were cut.

[Norvic]

Well that clears up that bit of gossip, at that time I was using the A2B and got a bit of a surprise at the performance of the 15000 you speak of Argyle. I suspect it had a DD coil as around rocks it was reaching nuggets the A2B couldn`t get (close to the base of rocks) Than the 1600 come along and that really concreted MLs dominance of the OZ gold scene. But have followed up on the 12000 manual and have contacted a fellow thinks he may have such somewhere?????, will get back if he finds it.

[argyle]

Definitely Norvic. Be good to actually read one, and see how they set it out back then, for sure.

 

Hey ...did you ever work a Dual Ace, green box twin freq 8kHz and 20kHz manual balance without a tone dial, around the same time you were using the GT 16000?

No tone control on either unit, but the tone of the threshold was set at the exact point of best response length to deep threshold dropouts for the average human ear.

And both those units and the entire platform (changing of course when the 17000's got a tone control point on them) had the exact same sound, and most ran the tone of the later models precisely where they were pre-set on the early units.

Very clever for the engineers at the time.

[Norvic]

Nah, never had a dual Ace, only used a loaned 1600 by then the 1700 was out, 1700 really swung me from the A2B, GM2 etc to ML, (was hard to walk away from producers like the A2B) yeah found tone control is very important to my hearing(or lack of it!!!!). Hopefully I`ll have that 12000 manual shortly, scan & convert to pdf, and attach pdf to post if Steve has no problem re. manual rights for such an oldie should be dead.

Interesting history the advancement of detectors, am going through a ton of old detecting books, no mention of the 12000 as yet. GG&T(OZ Mag) online archives don`t go back that far unfortunately

[argyle]

Back in early days the GG&T mag had a different name, aimed at the rockhounds and sapphire/opal diggers.

There was a card size and larger adds for the 9000 and 12000 in them then.

Minelab acquired the Magazine late 80's early 90's.

[PhaseTech]

I used to have a copy of the 12000 manual in a filing cabinet at Minelab. Used to print copies off for people once every few months. It's probably still sitting there, but since Minelab have moved, it may have been ditched?? I never wanted to throw anything out, was a bit of a hoarder for old stuff that no-one else wanted. 

[argyle]

So there definitely was one printed, thanks to Norvic and the hoarder Nenad.

Gee you would seen, read and handled heaps of manuals and old machines and componantry in your time there Nenad.

Just found out the 9000 had an instruction manual printed too.

Be interesting to read the wordage used to explain the auto-tuning/non motion when a manual is finally found.