steve herschbach
New member
This post is intended to help with any questions regarding the various Fisher Gold Bug models that exist, especially for those who are looking at used detectors.
The late 1980s Fisher Gold Bug was a real design breakthrough at the time with S rod, elliptical coil, and compact detachable control box. It ran at 19 kHz which was high at the time. There was no discrimination at all. Just beep and dig. It is a very good detector but the lack of ferrous discrimination would be a major feature missing compared to the current crop of detectors. The Gold Bug usually came with a 10" elliptical concentric coil at a MSRP of $499.95. There were 6" and 14" elliptical accessory coils and a rare 3-3/4" round concentric coil. There are no DD coils for the original Gold Bug. The Gold Bug is no longer in production.
The 1990s Gold Bug 2 looks physically the same, but upped the frequency to 71 kHz making this an extremely hot unit on tiny gold. The trade off is it actually gets less depth on large gold in mineralized soil than the earlier 1980s Gold Bug. The addition of a very good iron discrimination setting is a major plus, and the model is still produced today. As a prospector I consider it a "must have" detector due to the extreme sensitivity to small gold. The Gold Bug 2 can be purchased new with either a 5" x 10" concentric coil or 4" x 6" concentric coil for the same price. The current MSRP is $899.99. There are no DD coils for the unit. The only other coil option is a 14" elliptical coil. Original Gold Bug coils, although they look the same, do not work on the Gold Bug 2.
First Texas then decided to produce a huge number of variants on a new design. The new 21st century Gold Bug is sold as the Gold Bug, the short lived Gold Bug Special Edition, the Gold Bug Pro, and to really make life interesting, the Teknetics G2. These are all 19 kHz detectors with digital target id and adjustable audio discrimination. The Fisher units have an S rod design with control box mounted on the rod and the Teknetics units have a pistol grip design with the control box mounted on top of the pistol grip. The Gold Bug Pro comes with a 5" round DD coil and the Gold Bug Pro DP is just another variant in that it is the same detector but standard with the 11" elliptical DD coil. The G2 comes with the 11" elliptical DD. Units with the 11" DD cost $50 more than units with the 5" DD, which have a MSRP of $699.
Coils for the original 1980s Gold Bug and coils for the Gold Bug 2 do not work on the new Gold Bug/G2 detectors. However, any coil for any of these newer models will work on any of the new models.
The new Gold Bug, Gold Bug Special Edition, and Gold Bug Pro all also have firmware variants which generally change the audio output in small ways most people would not notice but which may be of interest to some people. Modulated audio or not? VCO or not? There was also some concern about lack of sensitivity to silver coins at one point supposedly addressed by later firmware variations. Regardless silver is not a strong point on the Gold Bugs which are designed to find gold. I believe we are up to version 4 of the firmware, with version 3.0 and 2.9 being a couple earlier versions. With the unit turned off and set in disc mode, depress the ground balance button. Keep holding it depressed, and turn on the detector. The firmware version should display. My Gold Bug Pro displays version 3.
If buying new I think you can pretty much ignore the firmware issue. If you like S rods, go Gold Bug, and decide which coil you want to get with it as the stock coil, 5" or 11" (or both). If you want pistol grip then go G2 but as far as I know you can only get that with the 11" coil as stock. Just to make matters interesting I will mention that the new 5" x10" DD accessory coil is getting nods as perhaps the best all around coil for the unit. Mine is on order so I will have to weigh in later on that. For prospecting I would lean towards getting the Gold Bug Pro with 5" coil and adding the 5" x 10" accessory coil if you want a larger coil.
I have a Gold Bug 2 and Gold Bug Pro. The Gold Bug 2 with 6" coil hotter on tiny gold whereas the Gold Bug Pro gets better depth on any gold about 1/2 gram or larger. Though as they say in the car ads, you performance may vary!
Steve Herschbach
The late 1980s Fisher Gold Bug was a real design breakthrough at the time with S rod, elliptical coil, and compact detachable control box. It ran at 19 kHz which was high at the time. There was no discrimination at all. Just beep and dig. It is a very good detector but the lack of ferrous discrimination would be a major feature missing compared to the current crop of detectors. The Gold Bug usually came with a 10" elliptical concentric coil at a MSRP of $499.95. There were 6" and 14" elliptical accessory coils and a rare 3-3/4" round concentric coil. There are no DD coils for the original Gold Bug. The Gold Bug is no longer in production.
The 1990s Gold Bug 2 looks physically the same, but upped the frequency to 71 kHz making this an extremely hot unit on tiny gold. The trade off is it actually gets less depth on large gold in mineralized soil than the earlier 1980s Gold Bug. The addition of a very good iron discrimination setting is a major plus, and the model is still produced today. As a prospector I consider it a "must have" detector due to the extreme sensitivity to small gold. The Gold Bug 2 can be purchased new with either a 5" x 10" concentric coil or 4" x 6" concentric coil for the same price. The current MSRP is $899.99. There are no DD coils for the unit. The only other coil option is a 14" elliptical coil. Original Gold Bug coils, although they look the same, do not work on the Gold Bug 2.
First Texas then decided to produce a huge number of variants on a new design. The new 21st century Gold Bug is sold as the Gold Bug, the short lived Gold Bug Special Edition, the Gold Bug Pro, and to really make life interesting, the Teknetics G2. These are all 19 kHz detectors with digital target id and adjustable audio discrimination. The Fisher units have an S rod design with control box mounted on the rod and the Teknetics units have a pistol grip design with the control box mounted on top of the pistol grip. The Gold Bug Pro comes with a 5" round DD coil and the Gold Bug Pro DP is just another variant in that it is the same detector but standard with the 11" elliptical DD coil. The G2 comes with the 11" elliptical DD. Units with the 11" DD cost $50 more than units with the 5" DD, which have a MSRP of $699.
Coils for the original 1980s Gold Bug and coils for the Gold Bug 2 do not work on the new Gold Bug/G2 detectors. However, any coil for any of these newer models will work on any of the new models.
The new Gold Bug, Gold Bug Special Edition, and Gold Bug Pro all also have firmware variants which generally change the audio output in small ways most people would not notice but which may be of interest to some people. Modulated audio or not? VCO or not? There was also some concern about lack of sensitivity to silver coins at one point supposedly addressed by later firmware variations. Regardless silver is not a strong point on the Gold Bugs which are designed to find gold. I believe we are up to version 4 of the firmware, with version 3.0 and 2.9 being a couple earlier versions. With the unit turned off and set in disc mode, depress the ground balance button. Keep holding it depressed, and turn on the detector. The firmware version should display. My Gold Bug Pro displays version 3.
If buying new I think you can pretty much ignore the firmware issue. If you like S rods, go Gold Bug, and decide which coil you want to get with it as the stock coil, 5" or 11" (or both). If you want pistol grip then go G2 but as far as I know you can only get that with the 11" coil as stock. Just to make matters interesting I will mention that the new 5" x10" DD accessory coil is getting nods as perhaps the best all around coil for the unit. Mine is on order so I will have to weigh in later on that. For prospecting I would lean towards getting the Gold Bug Pro with 5" coil and adding the 5" x 10" accessory coil if you want a larger coil.
I have a Gold Bug 2 and Gold Bug Pro. The Gold Bug 2 with 6" coil hotter on tiny gold whereas the Gold Bug Pro gets better depth on any gold about 1/2 gram or larger. Though as they say in the car ads, you performance may vary!
Steve Herschbach