Mike Hillis
Well-known member
I bought a new Golden MicroMax. I thought I was buying the old standard Golden with the old standard tone arrangement I'm so familiar with. The dealer thought he was shipping the old standard Golden with the old standard tone arrangement. Surprise! Surprise! I got the new tone arrangement. Serial number is 190911. Has the old standard operator manual and not the new Rev 2 manual.
My first reaction was to call the dealer and make arrangements to send it back. I wanted what I was familiar with and had used for the last 8 years. But I exercised some self control and decided that since I had it in hand, I may as well see what the new tones were about and if they would be useful. It still has 4 tones. A low tone for iron and foil, a medium low tone for zinc cents/alum bottle caps, a medium high tone for nickel/pull tab range targets, and a high tone for high conductors. The tones are nice sounding and well spread apart. Easy to hear and tell the difference between them unlike the old standard tone model.
The medium high tone range is adjustable based upon the notch width settings. At minimum setting (fully clockwise) a nickel has a squeaky mixed medium high/low tone and tabs have a solid medium high tone. As the notch width dial is turned counter-clockwise, the medium high tone is moved further down along the discrimination scale toward foil. End result being that all pull tabs, nickels, and high and medium foil range targets get a medium high tone when the notch width dial is turned fully counter clockwise to it's maximum setting. My heart sunk. It was discouraging. As a jewelry hunter I need to be able to distinguish alum range targets from each other. Giving aluminum trash targets a medium high tone designed to get your attention was offensive to me. If I could not hear the difference between gold range foil, nickels, and tabs, all I had was a high tone clad hunter. My next thought was, "call the dealer and exchange it".
But before I gave up there were two more tests I needed to do. If I left the notch width at minimum and incorporated the discrimination setting, could I get the targets I am after to stand out? The answer is yes, but with limited depth. I could leave the notch width fully clockwise (minimum setting), leaving me with the medium high tone for trash tabs, a squeaky mixed tone for nickels, but allowing many of the women and girls gold rings to respond with a low tone (the medium high tone wanted to bleed over on some making them squeaky), and using the disc dial to discriminate out the iron and trash foil. However, using the needed discrimination to cancel the iron and trash foil killed depth and I would still have to listen to that medium high tone sounding off in my ear telling me to dig trash. Not good. But I could activate the notch and get rid of most of the medium high tone responses, and just focus on the low tones. So Ok. I could do that.
But
My first reaction was to call the dealer and make arrangements to send it back. I wanted what I was familiar with and had used for the last 8 years. But I exercised some self control and decided that since I had it in hand, I may as well see what the new tones were about and if they would be useful. It still has 4 tones. A low tone for iron and foil, a medium low tone for zinc cents/alum bottle caps, a medium high tone for nickel/pull tab range targets, and a high tone for high conductors. The tones are nice sounding and well spread apart. Easy to hear and tell the difference between them unlike the old standard tone model.
The medium high tone range is adjustable based upon the notch width settings. At minimum setting (fully clockwise) a nickel has a squeaky mixed medium high/low tone and tabs have a solid medium high tone. As the notch width dial is turned counter-clockwise, the medium high tone is moved further down along the discrimination scale toward foil. End result being that all pull tabs, nickels, and high and medium foil range targets get a medium high tone when the notch width dial is turned fully counter clockwise to it's maximum setting. My heart sunk. It was discouraging. As a jewelry hunter I need to be able to distinguish alum range targets from each other. Giving aluminum trash targets a medium high tone designed to get your attention was offensive to me. If I could not hear the difference between gold range foil, nickels, and tabs, all I had was a high tone clad hunter. My next thought was, "call the dealer and exchange it".
But before I gave up there were two more tests I needed to do. If I left the notch width at minimum and incorporated the discrimination setting, could I get the targets I am after to stand out? The answer is yes, but with limited depth. I could leave the notch width fully clockwise (minimum setting), leaving me with the medium high tone for trash tabs, a squeaky mixed tone for nickels, but allowing many of the women and girls gold rings to respond with a low tone (the medium high tone wanted to bleed over on some making them squeaky), and using the disc dial to discriminate out the iron and trash foil. However, using the needed discrimination to cancel the iron and trash foil killed depth and I would still have to listen to that medium high tone sounding off in my ear telling me to dig trash. Not good. But I could activate the notch and get rid of most of the medium high tone responses, and just focus on the low tones. So Ok. I could do that.
But
I notice the Royal Sabre had similar qualities. By moving the notch disc control I could make the statab (most of them) either break up or not sound-while some nickels and all rings in the foil range would easily be accepted. In standard disc. the tone can be made where the tabs split into a 3-tone system. Unfortunately,with a preset notch width, it's not accurate on all tabs.