I first started using some Garrett models in early '69 to about '72 when their BFO's we're still being promoted more and did perform well. They had transitioned to making TR's as well like most every manufacturer, they just kept promoting BFO's longer than the others.
By about 1975 and '76, like today, I had several detectors and at the time the Compass TR Disc. and Garrett TR Disc. models where my favorites. In about April of '77 until about June or July of '81, I was a Garrett Dealer and relied heavily on their VLF/ TR-Disc. Groundhog as well as a very trusty American S2 TR Disc. model.
I preferred them for the sites I hunted over the new, four filter, fast-sweep models that came out in '78 and became the new surge. Garrett did make some circuitry changes in mid '81 and I switched to a different brand. I did hang on to my favorite Garrett TR, as part of my detector outfit, until I made a change in July of '83 to the two-filter quick response Tesoro line.
I still followed progress in the detector industry on through the '80s when I worked for Compass, and into the '90s and on to the present. Through all those years I have bought or traded for some of the Garrett motion discriminators to evaluate them, and kept hoping that they would have something that would be impressive to me. I never found. I just didn't enjoy any of them as much as I did the better models I was using, and that includes models offered today.
The AT series was a move to catch up in the industry, but in my opinion still fell a little short starting with their first, the AT Pro. It is waterproof, now, which was sort of a start of a trend, but the headphone and coil connectors were awkward to handle, plus it was a new model that lacked an All Metal mode.
Then they use the same physical configuration for the Gold and then the Max over several years time, but neither one brought us any serious improvement or features to try and keep up with everybody else. If you look at what's on the market today from Nokta- Makro, White's, Minelab, and XP, both Garrett and Whites are trailing a lot and even First Texas Products has some catching up to do.
If we don't see some serious motivation and a new entry from Garrett in the next 6 months I'll be very surprised as well as concerned about their longevity.
Monte
"Your EYES ... the only 100% accurate form of Discrimination!"
Stinkwater Wells Trading Post
Metal Detector Evaluations and Product Reviews monte@ahrps.org ... or ... monte@stinkwaterwells.com 503-481-8147Detectors: Vista 'X' / Vanquish 540 / CoRe, Relic & Simplex + / Bandido II µMAX & Silver Sabre µMAX / XLT / ORXPinpointers: Pulse-Dive .. Headphones: Killer B's 'Hornet' & 'Wasp' ... White's 'Pro Star'Note: Detectors are listed alphabetically by Brand. Models are chosen based on search site conditions.*** All working well today to make memories for tomorrow. ***
