GTP 1350 vs. My old Freedom Ace Plus John? help??

[timmer114]

Hello all, long time lurker, first time poster here. Love the forums btw.

Well I'll get straight to the point. I bought my Mother a Garrett Freedom Ace Plus back in Im gonna say 1994/1995 or so. She has always been a detecting buff, and someone stole her White's 6000d series2 that she had purchased back in 1983.

I remember using the 6000d and getting pretty decent with it. I found a nice little pile of mercury dimes over the weekends I would visit my Mom, (mind you this was 20 years ago)

So anyhow, someone steals the trusty white, and to be honest, my Mom was looking for something that was easier to work with, the Whites had a pretty stiff learning curve back there. I got her the Freedom Ace Plus. It basically uses 3 9v batteries, and has two controls, discrimination, and sensitivity.

With this detector, though I could find alot of clad with it, I could never seen to find anything old or deeper than about 3-4 inches. I would turn down the discrimination, and turn up the sensitivity and the detector would go crazy with false signals. We have pretty mineralized soil in central Wisconsin, and I figured this is the best it's going to get.

But, I liked the detector, even though I found alot more with the more expensive older White's, I liked the ruggedness of the Garrett, and I didnt miss re-soldering them battery pack wires to the circuitboard every few months, because when you would remove the batteries on the old whites, it would strain the wires, and eventually they would break.

Im getting off track here sorry...

Anyhow, Mom passed on a few years back, and I am finding myself with the itch to go detecting again, more now than ever. Took the Ace out, and as usual, alot of pennies close to the surface, Old churches, farm houses, places I know havent been touched, still nothing.

If I buy the 1350, can anyone tell me how it compares to the mid 90s freedom ACE plus? depthwise at least? I am good at picking apart junk signals, but I just could never get the depth with the Ace, and I am hoping that the GTP 1350 is alot deeper than the ACE.

I enjoyed your review of the 1350 Mr. Edmonton, and I love the finds you make with your Detector, but I was wondering, seeing as your a Garrett Buff, if you ever used the mid 90s ACE, and how it compares to the 1350. I dont really wanna buy another White's, nothing personal, just like the Garrett design, hoping that the depth is alot better than my old ACE.

Thanks!

Tim

 

[John-Edmonton]

Tim, I had the Freedom Ace Plus for a number of years, and had a lot of fun with it. I found it would sound off real hard on coins, especially copper and silver. I did get more then 3-4 inches depth on my unit. I just used to set the discrimination just past the pull tab range and hunt sports fields. The downside was that it used those darn 9 volt batteries, which cost a lot of money. I tried rechargeable nicads, but they didn't work too well either. The ACE was a simple, turn on detector, and in fairly neutral soil, worked great. I wonder if maybe your high mineralization was the problem?

Now the GTP 1350 is a totally different machine altogether. Without getting into too much detail, I will say that it gets substantially greater depth as the Freedom Ace Plus. It has the ability to give lots of information on the target under the search coil, such as size, depth, probability of target and does great pinpointing. It gets about the same depth as the GTI 1500, but only gives 3 sizes of probable targets, whereas the GTI 1500 gives 5 different sizes. It readily takes to-days rechargeable batteries, and will give you several hours per-charge. A set of recharge-ables lasts me over a year, and I try to get out at least one hour a day, weather depending. If you love coin hunting, especially in parks, old houses, beaches etc, you will probably do well with it. Once you get comfortable with it and really understand what the signals are telling you, you end up leaving lots of junk in the ground, which allows more time for digging good targets. That's been my experience. Shop around a bit Tim, and ask lots of questions. You may also want to look at some of the other Garrett Models. I have been an avid Garrett user for over 10 years, and feel that they are the best machines around for coin hunting. If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

[timmer114]

Thanks for the prompt reply John!

I am definately going ahead and ordering my GTP1350, I cant wait for it to get here!

The soil where I live is your typical upper midwest farm soil, great for growing things, but very mineralized, not good for detecting.

I really love the Garrett machine designs, they seem rugged, simple but powerful and effective, I actually did very well finding clads, and the occasional ring with the ACE at the local beaches, but my love is old coins, and I think the GTP will serve me well getting down deeper in this soil.

Thanks again! and I look forward to posting my finds when I get my new baby

Happy hunting!
Tim

 

[Uncle Willy]

I'm not John but the old Freedom was a good detector but the 1350 is light years ahead of it in technology and performance and you would be a mighty happy feller should you avail yourself of one.

Bill