Wow ! got a Tesoro Diablo Umax .

[amberjack]

pretty sure I read where Dave J said old man Gifford didn't like the machine and the price at release was over the top and it wasn't advertised and that my friends I think is the end of the section.

I would buy a new one if they made them again at the right price but sure not paying 700 bucks for one !!

AJ

 

[steve herschbach]

$599 when brand new does not seem excessive

 

[Dave J.]

$599 when brand new does not seem excessive

At the time the "old" Gold Bug was about $500 and everyone knew it was a good product. It was also the entry level "real" gold machine. The (then) recent White's Goldmasters were arguably better, but also cost more: that piece of competition was what the GB2 was all about.

To succeed in the market, the Diablo uMax had to undercut the GB price tag by just a few dollars and paint itself as the industry's new entry level "real" gold machine. That's what I'd designed it to do. The $600 price tag and pedestrian advertising left the world not knowing why anyone should buy the thing, so they didn't. .

Jack didn't understand what he had, and blew the marketing. (Not picking on Jack here, everybody in the business makes marketing screw-ups.) The Lobo ST (loosely based on the Diablo uMax platform) Jack did understand, and nearly 19 years later it's still being manufactured.

 

[Hoser John]

Still miss the good times with Hal and Norma. PESCO sold them all their sluices,dredges,hibankers,scoops and we sold them Tesoro like hotcakes. Did the SMPA story on the Gold Demon/devil demos/comparison hahaha so long ago. Good trick on the TLST is to ,when nugget shooting in all metal as always,just flip the pin point switch and most junk,ferrous metals,disappears as it locates the gold. Still love my LST to death. Use it more than the GB2 now. Miss Jack also....as the herd thins John

 

[C.J.M.]

What kHz is it?

 

[amberjack]

17.8

thanks Dave for the time travel back to the day