I believe I found the answer. Over the years White's has made different Surfmaster Models. On an older Surfmaster Pulse model there was a "Pulse Delay" knob. This allowed the user to reduce the pulse time. The surfmaster will send out a burst of energy into the ground(pulse), when it hits a target it will energize the target. The machine "shuts off"(delay), comes back on and sends out another burst, when it hits the energized target this sends a reflection back to the machine, making it respond. (which is good, especially in saltwater) Anyway, This happens numerouse times very, very quickly. With the "Pulse Delay" knob the user was able to reduce the pulse delay time, or slow it down. There are some metals that are not very conductive, such as platinum. By reducing the pulse delay, (the time between bursts) the metal would not stay energized thus when the pulse went out again the target was no longer energized, there by unable to reflect and inturn not creating a response. White's decided to remove this option and put in a "Gain Control" instead. The Gain control allows the pulse to go further or deeper.