'Using The Right Tool For The Job'

In an age where people are totally convinced that technology can cover all bases with a simple touch of a button, the 'old world' that apparently is well and truly behind us gets written off as a relic of the past. This attitude isn't just in metal detecting it pretty much leaks into everything. Let us remember that 'progress' can work in both ways, and sometimes it actually goes backwards. I want to talk about a few examples before I get to my main point. Let's take a brief look at carp fishing for our first example, this is a very popular sport here in the UK. There are new-fangled gadgets, rigs and baits that are coming out on the market all the time at extortionate prices, the mainstream brands claim what they're offering will catch you more fish. When people talk about carp angling nowadays, they use the term 'modern', in the angling world, the word 'modern' to me is simply 'complication'. Despite how much people convince themselves that there's some kind of new wonder rig and bait that will 'do the business for them', it is, in fact, all marketing hype - 'hype sells products and makes money'.

All the old simple baits like sweetcorn will always catch carp and the simple knotless knot rig is still accounting for thousands of large carp getting caught from all around the world on a weekly basis. The same can be said for fishing rods, companies are trying to come up with a rod that can cast long distance and still be a beautiful tool for you to play fish on. I can tell you now that a fishing rod of that kind doesn't exist. If you want to cast at distance you need a rod with a higher test curve, if you want a 'players rod' that's lovely to play fish on then you need one with a low test curve, you simply can't get those two elements within one rod design. You can try to find a middle ground but it will always fall short in one area or the other. I have a large number of hand built carp rods that cover a wide variety of situations and I will pick them depending on what style of fishing I've decided to do for the day.

A Beautiful Carp Caught On Very Simple Tactics 

Let us move on to drums, part of the way I earn my living is looking after drums, not only have I played them all my life I look after other drummers and their drum kits. There isn't one drum skin that covers all sounds and situations, a few companies have tried to come up with one but they've failed miserably. If you want a sharp attack and a bright open resonance you need to use single ply clear skins, a lot of metal drummers use these because it helps their toms to cut through. If, however you want a lower, fuller attack and more of a controlled resonance you'd be better off with a coated head or a layered skin with a dot in the middle. These types of skins produce a fatter and somewhat wider sound compared to the clear skins. A lot of jazz players go for heavy fibre coated skins because they're after a specific sound that stays true to the genre. The same can be said for cymbals, there are thousands of different cymbals that are used in different genres of music because of the specific qualities they have within the sound they make. There isn't one cymbal that can cover it all, that's why you have 'ride' cymbals and 'crash' cymbals, they're used for two totally different purposes. 

Which Sounds Better MP3 Or Analog Tape

The above examples I've provided are to explain that one thing can't cover all situations and that goes for metal detectors as well. Like everything nowadays, as tech advances we are made to believe that it leaves 'the old ways' in the dust. I find this intriguing, if MP3 music files are so good then why are vinyl sales at an all time high? Yes MP3 files are convenient but the digital distortion is very obvious when you compare them to a vinyl record. I'm repeating myself here but technology tends to have a convenience to it and I see examples of this in the world around me everywhere I look. I've said it once and I will say it again, technology is making the human race more stupid than ever. People would rather rely on a machine to make the decisions for them than actually take the time to make the decision for themselves.

So this brings me on to metal detecting and using the right tools for job, back when I wrote about my Equinox 800 I stated that you're getting a number of machines in one. Since I wrote that I have changed my mind, I personally don't believe that you are. You have the 'multi' settings and then you have a list of single frequencies to select from. So here's my issue, I don't believe you're getting a true single frequency by a simple push of a button. It might say it on the screen and some little change might occur in a microprocessor somewhere but I just don't think it's that simple. Despite what the companies say I just don't believe one coil can do it all. Now from my limited understanding, unmasking occurs in the higher frequencies, so how come when I select a higher frequency on the Equinox combined with a fast recovery speed, the detectors ability to unmask stays exactly the same. I've experiment with all the single frequencies available and nothing really changes. My single frequency Fisher F19 does a fantastic job at unmasking because I believe it's running at a true 19KHZ.

This leads me on to the point of using the right tools for the job, it appears some people feel single frequency machines are 'obsolete' - "that's a stupid word by the way". Also the idea of having to change a coil seems to be the end of the world, changing a coil is all part of the process for me. I use different coils for different jobs, just like my fishing rods, drum skins and cymbals. Not only that, I know the coils I'm using have be wound by hand and the make up of the coil has been designed to give the best possible performance at the frequency it's designed to operate at. For me I'd rather use a few different coils on a hunt that I know are giving me maximum performance as opposed to a coil and machine that claims that it can do it all. Has anyone heard of the saying "A Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None", that pretty much sums it up perfectly.

Two Bases Covered

When I go hunting I will usually take two coils, one high frequency and one low frequency and I will use them accordingly. Sometimes I will take two machines equipped with different coils on them. I look upon them as two totally different tools, the low frequency coil is like a magnifying glass and the high frequency coil is like a microscope. I understand people want futurist tech and convenience, meaning that both thinking and changing a coil can seem like too much hard work .. but ... Alas .... I simply don't operate that way. There's obviously people out there that will argue that firing multi frequencies into the ground means you don't have to mess around changing coils because you get the best of both worlds but I'm yet to see evidence of that to be the case, that subject is another blog entirely which is one I won't be writing because it will open a whole new can of worms.