Coinspader, I own and use the original tone Golden as well. I prefer this configuration because it keeps the tones in their proper conductive order. I too found that tabs, especially deeper tabs, give a higher tone or don’t notch out while in the ground, but disappear with the air test, after its dug. But this only happens when I use the 9x8 OOR coil. My favorite coil is the 7” WS. I have not experienced the tabs issue with this coil and the tones seem to be more distinct with this coil. Also, I have found that the 7” WS can still ID the steel bottle cap with a broken kind of clip sound. However, the 7” WS is not as deep as the larger concentric.
For best depth, use a fresh battery, as little discrimination as you can stand (after awhile that low iron grunt can get annoying in trashy places, turn the sens up until it starts to chatter, then back off till it quiets down, and I don’t like jacking up the threshold, I prefer to set it at a slight hum so that I can quickly check a target in all metal mode. Everyone will tell you that good headphones are a must as well.
You will need to play around with the notch width setting to find your preferences... this nob is THE FEATURE of this machine, IMHO. As others have indicated, it sets the notch width when using that feature, and when notch is off, it adjusts how the two middle tones hit on the small gold, nickels, and some tabs. I use it to put foil in the low grunt tone, but that will also put small gold chains and such in the low tone as well... but that’s the beauty... you can set it the way you like it.
With this machine, you can set it up so that almost all tabs and zincs disc out, but smaller gold rings like wedding bands still hit, along with nickels in the lower middle tone. I know that if you disc out the zinc and tabs you might miss the larger gold, but after awhile, you get tired of digging up those crusty zinc pennies. I ALWAYS dig the lower middle tones, it will be either a nickel, a larger piece of foil, balled up... or sometimes.... a small ring.
