Review on Tony Diannas Basic ear training for Excalibur

[bazza]

Review on Tony Diannas Basic ear training for Excalibur

Ok here goes!
I havent written a review before but after four weeks of listening to Tonys CD, I feel compelled to put to rest any doubters of its ability to provide the newby through to the most experienced detectorist new approaches to interpreting sound.
A little about me
I purchased the Minelab Excalibur II with 10 coil just under a year ago.
My beginnings with the Excal were punctuated with frustration over finding every flip top, ring pull, can slaw and junk iron that a beach had to offer, but after perseverance, I managed to find my first silver ring after one month.
Luckily I started bench testing gold and silver rings I had found with my E-trac together with ring pulls, twist tops and coinage because in that ten months I managed to find more gold than my entire history with my other machines!
Always looking for authorative publications from quality authors such as Andy Sabisch, and Clive James Clynick, I heard that there is a Cd by Tony Dianna on Basic Ear training for the Excalibur, so after many enquiries I managed to locate his offering.
I have read feedback on peoples thoughts regarding his CD, and personally am amazed with the quality and content of it.
His technical explanation of sound has really taught me how to listen to whats under the coil, and after five weeks of applying his methods have found 25 rings (3 gold, 8 silver, 1 titanium and 13 junk rings) and $186 in coins.
The ring count has increased, but amazingly, the amount of trash in my finds bag has greatly reduced! This may not sound mind blowing but from my experience, on average in two outings I would fill my finds bag with trash, recover the odd ring and about $15-$20 in coinage.
Clearly the difference for me is that I am actually listening to sound now, and making an informed decision on whether to dig or not, and as he explains, hearing fatigue reduces ones skill at interpreting sound, so I take a rest, recalibrate my ears and go again, simple!
Whilst there are detailed explanations provided on US coinage, which is not applicable for Australian conditions, the underlying information regarding interpretation and listening can still be applied to our coins, or for that matter, coins from any country.
I cant recommend highly enough this CD as a valuable tool in anyones arsenal if they are seriously into finding coins and jewellery!

Cheers

Bazza

 

[tvr]

Thanks for sharing how it helped you. I'm pretty new to the Excal; have done some listening to it's response to standard coins in test situations. I have thought about picking up a copy of the ear training CD. Reading about your experience, I may do more than just think about picking up a copy.

 

[John(Tx)]

I'm glad it works for you but I dig every sound that I come across and to be truthful the tones from a pulltab, nickle and gold ring just sound the same to me, that is why I dig it all. I don't like to leave signals behind because it would be in the back of my mind on what I might have missed. HH

 

[mesha]

Hey Bazza

What part of OZ do you Hunt?

cheers Ron

 

[Mel Parker]

Even bottle caps sound good sometimes.

 

[bcoop]

if your not digging all the low medium tones that pull tabs, pull rings and other aluminium and gold makes then your missing gold. I have never dug any iron junk with my Excalibur, and I can easily identify the difference between a penny, dime and a quarter. After you dig several of each of them it is not a problem recognizing the tone difference.

Gold rings and gold jewelry comes in all different shapes and sizes it is composed of different mixtures of precious metals. Not to mention karat rating. With that being said there is no way you can listen to any one and determine if it is a good target or not. 20 rings could give 20 different tones according to shape, karat, size and depth.

The CD is good information and can help train your ear as to what to expect. Only real life and digging targets gets the good stuff.

Thanks for sharing your success.

BCOOP

 

[wayupnorth66]

Can anyone tell me if the minelab safari has the same tones as the excal 2 ? Ive owned a safari and looking into buying an excal 2

 

[bazza]

Hi BCOOP

Actually, nothing in my post suggests I don't dig any low medium tones, on the contrary, I spend much more effort actually listening to sounds now, and am learning to pick up subtle differences as a result of listening to Tony's CD, any signal that vaguely sounds good, or I am slightly unsure about gets dug.
I can say quite simply that the quality of my finds increase each time I take the time to learn new methods of detecting, and the trash bag gets lighter.
I take your points regarding aluminium v gold, including differing karat composition and weight, I don't yet have the ability or the confidence to pass over these signals BUT when I I do find these "good" sounding targets, I sweep and listen and make an educated guess as to what it is before confirming my suspicion and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised!
I often hear that the best discriminator is to dig and find out and in the circumstances just mentioned I totally agree, but in any other circumstance why would one spend hours in the surf digging up every signal, these detectors have have discrimination, threshold, volume and sensitivity, but are all useless if we don't use them properly, in my opinion the same goes with the bloke swinging it, poor coil control, sweep speed and not actually listening (I was a culprit) prevents us from really extracting the most that we can from these detectors

Thanks for your comment BCOOP

Cheers

Bazza

 

[bazza]

Hi Ron

I live in Sydney but do follow big seas, last week saw me up in northern NSW and unfortunately the spot I was targeting was sanded in but I did manage to find a few coin lines on various beaches on the trip back, how about you?

Cheers
Bazza

 

[erikk]

Even bottle caps sound good sometimes.

Right on...

If you are selective digging you are missing a bunch of good stuff & as Mel says, dig it all.

 

[ToniSteve]

The CD helped me be more discerning, and to learn the idiosyncrasies of sounds that the Excal produces. It is well worth the price. It even helped me improve my guitar playing too! It is a great primer for the Excal and the knowledge can spill over into the use of the Sov Gt. With the CD coupled with actual field work I think one can shorten the learning curve quite a bit. Especially a person who does not get to the beach on a regular bases. Toni's CD is a great resource!

Another good resource for info on using the Excal are Clive Clynick's Gold Page books.Here is the latest, Shoreline Treasure Hunting with the Minelab Excalibur:
Methods and Applications
But the older books on water hunting and the Excal are great reads too, with lots of useful information.

Best regards,
Steve

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

for myself.after getting my excalibur 2 1000 i needed all the help i could find since i was a complete newbie to this sport,i had gotten all the books i could find,then i came across this cd while i was in kellyco one afternoon,i heard it and i was amazed,now this will work for me as it did help the learning curve allot,now tony is a good friend of mine and i do hunt with him when im home in florida,hes always willing to help one out..imho get the cd itll help allot..
good luck
john
check out my facebook for some of my finds