Which mine lab? GP3000, GP3500 or GPX4000?

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Jesse

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Hi guys

I know these posts come up regularly on this forum but I'm thinking of upgrading to a mine lab and don't really want too go all out and spend 6k for a 5000 even thou it's the whole hog I'm serious but not that serious to spend that amount and is way out of my price range as it would for many.

I'm looking at investing in a second hand minelab detector but don't want too spend too much if I can help it but can give or take on that. Ive looked into maybe getting something like a GP 3000 or GP 3500 or even going a little more expensive and getting a GPX 4000

Any advice fellas on what is more user friendly and works we'll any help is much appreciated!
 
Jesse - the 3500 is probably the best starter of the blue box series. the 2200D are a very good brown box PI and a lot of older prospectors kept their 2200s (me included) and also simple to use. both are very simple to use. the 2200 for Victoria is pretty much a DD detector. The 3500 allows both DD and mono (to an extent), with the DD probably the better coil for it. There are several 3500 and 2200 users on the forum but haven't seen many 3000 or 4000 users. The 35 and 22 are both good machines and the PI technology will impress you with how quiet they are on Vict mineralised soils.
 
Hi Loamer, Thanks heaps mate exactly what I'm looking for a straight forward answer! I'll look into both of them :) cheers
 
Like Loamer said, go with the gp3500 it has 3 auto tracking modes and manual tune as well. I had a gp extreme and i wished it had a manual tune and i found the auto tracking to fast in a lot of areas. so if i was to buy another PI i would have no hesitation in buying a GP3500.Also i have seen the GP3500 running with Mono and it did alot better than my extreme. There's a guy tony selling a GP3500 on australian metal detecing forum, i think its still for sale....roscoe
 
Jesse, get the best you can afford, in the minelab range I would probably go for in increasing order of price a 705 gold act, an SD2200D, the 4500 and finally the 5000. Hope that helps.
 
"The SD2100 and SD2100v2 are fairly simple manual ground balance units that refined the SD2000. The frequency could be manually adjusted to avoid interference from outside sources, such as a nearby detector. The SD2200d and SD2200v2 offer automatic ground balancing or a fixed/locked ground balance. They also introduced an iron disc feature of dubious reliability, audio boost, and automatic frequency offset."

Redfins posted a terrific link that compares the ranges/types. Redfin posted this link: http://www.detectorprospector.com/g...een-minelab-sd-gp-gpx-models.htm#.UnM_Iflmh8F
 
I was going to see what Coiltek Maryborough had in the way of second hand detectors only because I live close to there.
And I'll check that out aswell roscoe thanks mate.
I'd be screwed if if I didn't have your input fellas cheers!
 
Jessie, the GP extreme, 3000 and 3500 can be used very effectively as a real good relic hunting machine as well. For instance if you set your detector on sensitive timing and go over a good target then switch to normal, if it goes from a low/high tone in sensitive to a high/low tone in normal then it could be a Half sovereign. With a bit of experimentation with various coins you will no what is under your coil by changing the timings and sending one from low/high to high/low etc. I have used this on my Gp extreme with excellent results. I just thought you may like to know a little more things that one detector can do over the others...roscoe

I had to edit this because i made a mistake...sorry all fixed
 
Luke - the 2100/2000. I can remember when they first came out. It was like heaven!! and they are very good detectors. I don't think its a simple matter of the new ones getting deeper, I think it also has to do with the ability for us to now hear more clearly whats going on - the chap in the article linked above makes some very good points about this. One thing that tends to get overlooked is the big advances in coils, either DD or Monos. I am of the opinion though that the old 18" DD are better than the newer ones, and the new monos are better than the older ones and the new 11" DD is a cracker. I went to a test of the 5000 with big big coils run against a 2200 - the 2200 won. However, the 5000 beats the 2200 a lot of other times. There is no one 'best' detector or coil. A lot of its the operator and the ability to see and hear and get a feel for whats going on. I still run my old 2200 with a big coil when I get onto a patch. I actually love the old PIs because you can hear the detector working and every sound it makes is telling you something.

Its like my tool box at work - many tools for lots of different jobs. Mind you - swearing and hitting things with a sledge hammer usually gets a result.
 
Jesse said:
I was going to see what Coiltek Maryborough had in the way of second hand detectors only because I live close to there.
And I'll check that out aswell roscoe thanks mate.
I'd be screwed if if I didn't have your input fellas cheers!
Click to expand...

Jesse - I am not involved commercially with Colitek in any way but the boys at Maryborough are very good and will see you right. They even run training sessions as well.
 
Thanks roscoe all the info I can acquire is a bonus as im new to mine lab products :)

And that's a good reassurance loamer hopefully the can hook me up with something mate!
 
Hi all,

For what its worth, I operate a 3500 it's a great detector I traded a 2200 (big mistake! but thats another story) when I purchased it years ago. I found the learning curve with the 3500 very short, and quickly became comfortable using it. The're not overly complicated which suits me fine. I run a 16" mono coil, a 6.8 volt power supply and a signal booster.

Mine paid for itself years ago, and I really couldn't see myself upgrading any time soon :)

I'm sure if you purchased a 3500 you wouldn't be disapointed.

Jim & Kerrie
 
Sorry for bumping a old thread but, it was a good read.

I didn't want to make a new thread and had this question.

When was the 5000 released?

I'm also after a timeline of all the Minelab detectors release dates. I know they have some info on the site but not the exact year.

What would also be good is the price, the tech used PI etc. and maybe even the price of gold at the time. Maybe something for every brand of detector would be great. Anyone bored with free time? :)
 
Jesse I brought my GP extreme from coiltek secondhand they look after me well. competive with ebay price but with warranty & Course. They will look after you.
Alternative is look at members on here in your area, they often upgrade & if close you can usually try first.
 
Thanks everyone for your input to this thread - I've narrowed my search to a 2200d (or V2 if it comes up but seam to be few around), a 3500 and a 4000. I'm mainly looking at central Victoria as where I'd be using it most. I've used a borrowed 5000 on a couple of occasions and found a 0.5g and a smaller nugget. A 5000 is way out of the price range.

I'm comfortable that the 2200 and 3500 would both do the job. My main question is if I come across a 4000 for not much more, is it worth getting over the 3500? It seems that many jumped from a 2x to a 3500 to a 4500/5000 and the 4000 is a bit of an orphan??

Budget say up to $2.5k. A have an X-terra 305 for coins/relics
 
Lindt said:
Thanks everyone for your input to this thread - I've narrowed my search to a 2200d (or V2 if it comes up but seam to be few around), a 3500 and a 4000. I'm mainly looking at central Victoria as where I'd be using it most. I've used a borrowed 5000 on a couple of occasions and found a 0.5g and a smaller nugget. A 5000 is way out of the price range.

I'm comfortable that the 2200 and 3500 would both do the job. My main question is if I come across a 4000 for not much more, is it worth getting over the 3500? It seems that many jumped from a 2x to a 3500 to a 4500/5000 and the 4000 is a bit of an orphan??

Budget say up to $2.5k. A have an X-terra 305 for coins/relics
Click to expand...

:) :) :) ...We both seem to be looking for the same machines..I will be a while so good luck with it...
 

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