Gold Bug Pro & Gold Bug SE - What's the Difference?

[berryman]

For those of use familiar with both machines, what's the difference performance-wise between the current Gold Bug Pro and the predecessor Gold Bug Special Edition (SE)?

 

[Tom Slick]

The Pro came with the 5" coil and the SE had the 8"x11" coil.

 

[godigit1]

The SE was the first edition that had VCO.(2.9 software) It also had a large silver problem that was remedied by FTP when the units were returned. It came with the 5 inch coil. the pro also comes with the 5 inch coil. The DP and G2 Come with the 11 dd.
The difference is the Pro is the finished product. Both detectors act the same as far as ID And function but it is said that the SE runs a little hotter.
Current software version is 4 on the Pro as far as I have heard. I have two bugs and a G2 and still want a SE Go Figure!!!!

HH

 

[Tom Slick]

My bad. I was thinking DP not SE

 

[berryman]

HH: I imagine that FTP tweaked the software to fix the "silver problem" when the SE's were returned for that purpose and presume that the fix had the effect of making the machine more sensitive to high conductive targets (i.e., silver). Do you know if the fix was a simple software tweak or if it resulted in a new software version being installed on the machine?

 

[Weekend Warrior]

I currently have a Gold Bug SE that I have posted in the classifieds. I took this detector in trade A few weeks back. I was hesitant at first because all my prior trials with fisher machines has been disappointments. But after trying it out I agreed to a trade. First off the machine is user friendly, it was alot lighter than my previous machine an M6. You can run this at a high gain all day with no chatter or problems from EMI.
It works great in wet salty sand and hits clad coins as deep as my buddies F75. It is the closest thing to my sand shark that I have used. as it will find everything. Little bb's. ear ring backs , zippers everything. I like that it will let you adjust the ground balance manually + or - after using the ground grab. I will probably kick myself later for parting with it but have been jonesing to try out the T2.

 

[berryman]

I noticed that two GBSE's sold recently on the forums. They're not quite as rare as hen's teeth but almost. Looks like two lucky people really scored with their purchases.

 

[godigit1]

The Hens teeth are the pre 2.9 with saturated audio. One dealer I know referred to them as the Frankenstein model and that's kinda stuck with me so its the frankenbug!!!!!

I have only seen one other member on this forum with one and never have seen one for sale.

And you will have to pry mine out of my cold dead hands before Ill let it go. And I have a G2 as well but that is how much I like it.

The audio however is much harder to tolerate than the G2 as everything hits at full volume.

But the disc mode is much deeper as a result.

The all metal performance is close between the two but the all metal mode on the 2.0 has a rawer sound I really like for nuggets the little zips are more what I had become accustomed to with my old 50khz machine.

When I first saw videos of the 2.9 the first thing I noticed was the different audio tones between the two machines.

Oh and the 2.9 were not updated on software for the silver fix it was a hard ware fix as far as they still came back with 2.9 software.

The saturated audio really does have merits I wish it was a platform that FTP would revisit!

HH
godigit

 

[Keith Southern]

The 2.9 does seem to be a little deeper than a 4.0...but Now I much prefer the 4.0 to the 2.9...

though the 2.9 seemd a little deeper ,,,,for depth I use other machines anyway,,,what I find is the 4.0 will unmask better...

it all lies in the target response...

the 2.9 was full on VCO from coil bottom to depth...

The 4.0 is beep out to about 5 inches or so then VCO comes into play..

whe you couple the first 5 inch tight beep with the laser edged 5x10 DD you can pick the slightest peeps out of nails that the VCO audio does not fully relay to you audibly...

Also the All metal gain is more adjusted to meet the disc gain on the 4.0... the 2.9 required turning back when going form disc to all metal and nothing wrong wiht thta exceptht he I.D. depth falls off when the gain knob is truned back...you can get more i.d. depth in all metal on the 4.0 than the 2.9 with stable operation...

Also in disc mode the I.D. screen clears itself after a few sceond's..on the 2.9 it holds to the next target...why is this problematic....what if the last target you hit was iron reading 23 well you get a hit but tis too deep to trigger the I.d. to change but you look down and see the 23 still there and unknowingly walk away from a good target that was just past the numeric i.d. range but not knowing it...On the 4.0 the self clearing option will not show a target i.d. on too deep of a target so you will investigate to see what it is..

but the 2.9 is a tad deeper if thats what you require...

Look at the strongpoints of each and decide...I use detectors as tool's and the unmasking in iron is more important than the depth on this freq....so I choose the 4.0 now.

Keith

 

[berryman]

A little added depth is the only real advantage the SE offers? Makes you wonder then why the so-called 29'er is so sought after. The legend of the 29''er must be more myth than reality.