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Golden U Max opinions
- Thread starter jlw
- Start date
Lightweight and well learned gives moderate depth and likes gold jewelry..Just remember you have several notch options...with toggle to the right(wide) and using the knob control to the far left you can accept nickels and high coins above zinc penny and with toggle to the left you can accept all high coins and using far left knob control you can dial how much of the nickel area you desire..Going to have to experiment with notch until you get a setting for your type of hunting...most misunderstood Tesoro and many bash it for tones running into each other and notch problems but well learned a super lightweight unit that does away with a meter and the audio tells you whats in the ground...
Mike Hillis
Well-known member
I've used the Golden with all the coils except the 5.75". I liked it with all of them. I don't talk much about depth because that is ground dependant and what I get here doesn't mean anything to what you may get there. I did find the stock 9x8 to seperate a little better than the brown donut but I couldn't tell you which one was deeper.
Mike
Mike
[size=large]Golden UMax Q & A[/size]
Q. Will the Golden hit a dime at 7" with a clear high tone?
A. My Golden UMax will air test that on a clad dime - with the high tone intact.
SENS: half way into the boost zone
THRESH: barely audible
NOTCH: OFF
DISC: Preset
a). Fluorescent lights on in the room,
b) Audio results from the speaker alone, no headphones...
Keep in mind, this is an arbitrary test - 7" represents nothing in particular. This was an air test, and is pushing the SENS. But, it is also without the THRESHOLD punch of super tuning and I'll add it was very stable even with the lights in the room. .
I would expect the high tone to drop a notch after the 6" mark. But, under most conditions, anything that responds clearly in both swing directions and indicates over 4" deep should be recovered - period.
Q. What about adding a manual ground balance?
A. As for modding the detector with a manual GB, I have not done it. It voids the warranty and I live in South Carolina - the soil here is universally mild. Only on rare occasions have I seen problems, and those I recall can be traced to mineralized gravel fill being present. Whenever I test the preset balance, I find it is slightly positive.
Remember, the Golden uM is a micro max detector. Expecting it to to detect to China is unrealistic.. so is expecting it to be a "do it all" detector..
But within it's limits, it is fast, accurate and light. And when the conditions are right, it can impress.
========================================================================================================================
So you are saying then that the Golden will go every bit as deep as a Vaquero ? ....
No. Under the conditions at that site, i.e., soil, target depth, types of targets, etc., the Vaquero and the Golden were equal. Elsewhere, under different conditions, that may not be so.
But I AM saying that the MicroMax cicruit that the Golden uses is better than you may think, or have been led to believe.
I pulled a quarter from 8-10" last season with the Golden uMax, which gave a clear high coin tone.
Would the Vaquero have done that? Probably... but not with tone ID. Remember there are no One-Size-Fits-All detectors.
You mention the Vaquero being an "iron hog" .....Can't the Iron be discriminated out as the first item on the dial? ....
That's the theory, yes. In practice, it is generally only like that with smaller iron, say small nails and so on. Large iron items, well rusted in the soil may actually overload the circuits and cause some detectors to respond to it. Discrimination only sometimes acts like the TV commercials suggest it does, separating "trash from treasure..."
Now, some "Tesoroists" will say they can tell iron by the short clipped response or "bad sounding" audio it gives.
But does that help a newcomer, who may not have a trained ear? This is why I like the Golden - it has tone ID.
======================================================================================================
The Golden Depth
If you like the Silver uMax, then you know what the Golden will do in terms of depth. It is the same MicroMax circuit, same front-end performance. I've always been tickled at the folks who will trip over themselves to get a Silver-series detector - but turn their noses up at the Golden uMax because someone says it lacks depth. I've owned them all, and there is little difference in that regard. Here's a true story from last year....
I used a Golden uMax beside a Vaquero in a series of early spring plowed field hunts, on the same piece of land. This gave consistent test conditions in the field. Guess what I discovered? There was nothing the Vaquero could find that was beyond the Golden uMax. And the Golden gave me a sweet, reliable iron tone ID in low discrimination settings - something the Vaquero could never do!
Tones Rule
The iron and high tones are very distinct. There is no mistaking them, so there is little worry there and we can close the book on them for the moment.
Inevitably, complaints about the Goldens' tones center around those which define the midrange of conductivity.
They are indeed close together, i.e., the mid-lo ( foil / nickel) and mid-high (tab / zinc) audio tones are not widely spaced in frequency.
And as odd as that seems, it is for a reason: the Golden uMax is a mid range detector. It is most expansive, having it's greatest resolution in the mid range. SO just what does this mean?
Well, I can ID most common types of pull tabs with it, for example, just by working the controls. With practice and precise NOTCH control adjustments, I can also isolate a nickle from those nasty pulltabs that are just a teensy bit above the nickel mark. These are the same ones that usually usually fool other detectors.
I can do the same for the foil end just below nickles.
MAKE NO MISTAKE - this is a very fine bit of discrimination work, and is done without digital filtering or enhancements.
Somewhere in my files I have a "pull tab map" that shows umpteen types of pulls and where they fall on the Golden's NOTCH control.
The Trash Has it
Those people who swear by the Golden uMax do so because of gold jewelry. Iron is easy, as is clad and silver coinage.
But, it is a cruel truth of the Universe that the material thing we value above most others - gold - also reacts just like all the junk we detest.
Since alloyed gold can ID as trash, anywhere between foil and pennies, you have no choice but to recover the targets that signal cleanly in that range. With that said, what is the compelling importance of very distinct mid range tones, when you must recover all targets in that range, anyway, if you are to get the gold?
After a bit of use, the tones WILL come through clearly. Nickels will "sing" to you if you listen.
It does present a kind of "squawky," even abrupt response suite, though. And there are really SIX distinct tones. Also, trash or good targets mixed with trash will offer a tonal crossover, forcing you to pay close attention.
So the Golden uMax can be a noisome challenge to those who expect a detector to tell them what they've found, instead of recovering what it finds. It isnt really for the casual detectorist, although the paradox is that is the best way to treat it. Let it signal to you, listen closely and recover what it finds. Do that for awhile and youll get the hang of what Mike Hillis has called one of the best "cruiser" detectors made.
Q. Will the Golden hit a dime at 7" with a clear high tone?
A. My Golden UMax will air test that on a clad dime - with the high tone intact.
SENS: half way into the boost zone
THRESH: barely audible
NOTCH: OFF
DISC: Preset
a). Fluorescent lights on in the room,
b) Audio results from the speaker alone, no headphones...
Keep in mind, this is an arbitrary test - 7" represents nothing in particular. This was an air test, and is pushing the SENS. But, it is also without the THRESHOLD punch of super tuning and I'll add it was very stable even with the lights in the room. .
I would expect the high tone to drop a notch after the 6" mark. But, under most conditions, anything that responds clearly in both swing directions and indicates over 4" deep should be recovered - period.
Q. What about adding a manual ground balance?
A. As for modding the detector with a manual GB, I have not done it. It voids the warranty and I live in South Carolina - the soil here is universally mild. Only on rare occasions have I seen problems, and those I recall can be traced to mineralized gravel fill being present. Whenever I test the preset balance, I find it is slightly positive.
Remember, the Golden uM is a micro max detector. Expecting it to to detect to China is unrealistic.. so is expecting it to be a "do it all" detector..
But within it's limits, it is fast, accurate and light. And when the conditions are right, it can impress.
========================================================================================================================
So you are saying then that the Golden will go every bit as deep as a Vaquero ? ....
No. Under the conditions at that site, i.e., soil, target depth, types of targets, etc., the Vaquero and the Golden were equal. Elsewhere, under different conditions, that may not be so.
But I AM saying that the MicroMax cicruit that the Golden uses is better than you may think, or have been led to believe.
I pulled a quarter from 8-10" last season with the Golden uMax, which gave a clear high coin tone.
Would the Vaquero have done that? Probably... but not with tone ID. Remember there are no One-Size-Fits-All detectors.
You mention the Vaquero being an "iron hog" .....Can't the Iron be discriminated out as the first item on the dial? ....
That's the theory, yes. In practice, it is generally only like that with smaller iron, say small nails and so on. Large iron items, well rusted in the soil may actually overload the circuits and cause some detectors to respond to it. Discrimination only sometimes acts like the TV commercials suggest it does, separating "trash from treasure..."
Now, some "Tesoroists" will say they can tell iron by the short clipped response or "bad sounding" audio it gives.
But does that help a newcomer, who may not have a trained ear? This is why I like the Golden - it has tone ID.
======================================================================================================
The Golden Depth
If you like the Silver uMax, then you know what the Golden will do in terms of depth. It is the same MicroMax circuit, same front-end performance. I've always been tickled at the folks who will trip over themselves to get a Silver-series detector - but turn their noses up at the Golden uMax because someone says it lacks depth. I've owned them all, and there is little difference in that regard. Here's a true story from last year....
I used a Golden uMax beside a Vaquero in a series of early spring plowed field hunts, on the same piece of land. This gave consistent test conditions in the field. Guess what I discovered? There was nothing the Vaquero could find that was beyond the Golden uMax. And the Golden gave me a sweet, reliable iron tone ID in low discrimination settings - something the Vaquero could never do!
Tones Rule
The iron and high tones are very distinct. There is no mistaking them, so there is little worry there and we can close the book on them for the moment.
Inevitably, complaints about the Goldens' tones center around those which define the midrange of conductivity.
They are indeed close together, i.e., the mid-lo ( foil / nickel) and mid-high (tab / zinc) audio tones are not widely spaced in frequency.
And as odd as that seems, it is for a reason: the Golden uMax is a mid range detector. It is most expansive, having it's greatest resolution in the mid range. SO just what does this mean?
Well, I can ID most common types of pull tabs with it, for example, just by working the controls. With practice and precise NOTCH control adjustments, I can also isolate a nickle from those nasty pulltabs that are just a teensy bit above the nickel mark. These are the same ones that usually usually fool other detectors.
I can do the same for the foil end just below nickles.
MAKE NO MISTAKE - this is a very fine bit of discrimination work, and is done without digital filtering or enhancements.
Somewhere in my files I have a "pull tab map" that shows umpteen types of pulls and where they fall on the Golden's NOTCH control.
The Trash Has it
Those people who swear by the Golden uMax do so because of gold jewelry. Iron is easy, as is clad and silver coinage.
But, it is a cruel truth of the Universe that the material thing we value above most others - gold - also reacts just like all the junk we detest.
Since alloyed gold can ID as trash, anywhere between foil and pennies, you have no choice but to recover the targets that signal cleanly in that range. With that said, what is the compelling importance of very distinct mid range tones, when you must recover all targets in that range, anyway, if you are to get the gold?
After a bit of use, the tones WILL come through clearly. Nickels will "sing" to you if you listen.
It does present a kind of "squawky," even abrupt response suite, though. And there are really SIX distinct tones. Also, trash or good targets mixed with trash will offer a tonal crossover, forcing you to pay close attention.
So the Golden uMax can be a noisome challenge to those who expect a detector to tell them what they've found, instead of recovering what it finds. It isnt really for the casual detectorist, although the paradox is that is the best way to treat it. Let it signal to you, listen closely and recover what it finds. Do that for awhile and youll get the hang of what Mike Hillis has called one of the best "cruiser" detectors made.
Gosh, Dahut. That was absolutely on equal footing with Mike's article that I was so crazy about. I appreciate you mentioning the Silver umax as that made me decide to get one. I have the Royal Sabre and have some practice with mixed tones and I know the "language" you and Mike are talking about. I also have the Silver and know how it performs and oft wish I had a tone or two on some deep pulltabs in areas where most of the stuff is only a few inches deep but yet I often wonder about some of the soft deep items that I "know" are probably trash. I deeply appreciate the time you two guys took to write your articles.
These are the very conditions where the Golden comes into its own.therover said:
Let me give you an example. Near my home is the county fairgrounds. The spot where the rides and concessions are sited each year is a grass field the rest of the time, and is a nice place to hunt. But the ground is badly littered with two types of trash: pulltabs and light bulb bases.
The bulb bases come from the rides, where the carnival workers toss them on the ground as they replace burnt out ones. They are just below nickles in conductivity and hit strongly. There are so many that it is almost impossible to hunt that site - unless you can ID them. One must accept that leaving them behind is the only way to detect this area.
And the Golden is the only detector I've used there that can identify them. Its resolution in the midrange is so precise that it can pick them out from nickles. It also differentiates the higher pulltabs with ease - even the ones that usually read like nickels. None of the other detectors Ive taken there can do as well. Because of the Golden, I have been able to take out handfuls of coins and the occasional necklace piece that I could pick out among the many bulb bases.
There is a field that I hunt that is pretty old, and I always end up digging 3-4 lightbulb bases ( older ones ) and they sound sooooo good. Never really tried to notch them out when using the DFX, but good to know the Golden can be tweaked to do that.
Now I am wondering if it can notch out fishing gear ( like swivels line connectors). I hit a spot the other day loaded with them and sinkers and the shallow brass swivels and gear were killing me !
Now I am wondering if it can notch out fishing gear ( like swivels line connectors). I hit a spot the other day loaded with them and sinkers and the shallow brass swivels and gear were killing me !
Monkeywrangler22
New member
Dahut, thanks for the nice review/writeup on the Golden...I have been thinking about trading my Cibola for a DeLeon or Cortes, but your post on the Golden has me thinking it may do what I want as well or better than the visual ID detectors...
Wow, that was a good read. I will have my Golden in about 1.5 to 2 weeks, really excited. You mention a pulltab map, can you email that to me and any other words of wisdom? I will have the 7" widescan, have already acquired the 5.75" and 4" concentric coils. I do not think there will be any other coils in my future, unless I could find a Troy X2 9" coil.
Thanks Matt
Thanks Matt
I've owned a Golden u-max a few years back and it was a very good machine.... it isn't one of Tesoro's deepest seeking machines but it is great on coins & Jewelry. Take the time to read and understand the notch feature on this unit because it's one of the best features on this particular unit.I've often pondered swapping my Bandido II for another Golden on many occasions.
Best of luck,
Jay
Best of luck,
Jay