A Mass Produced State Of Mind

In a world where fake money is readily available, most notably credit cards, the true value of things is something that's rarely appreciated. I was taught to work hard for what I wanted in life from both a financial and spiritual perspective. When you work hard to earn money to purchase something you want you actually understand the value of things and you learn to appreciate them. We're now living in what I call a "mass-produced state of mind", I've written about this before. Many people simply buy what they want on credit and if it doesn't meet expectations immediately 'said item' is sold as quickly as it entered their life, it means nothing to them.

Regarding the mass production of items nowadays, a vast majority of things are built like shit, companies want to make the most profit possible whilst investing the least possible. It's not about 'performance over profit', it's about profit and selling as much shite to the gullible general public as they can get away with. It's this viewpoint that has turned the people of the world into non thinking drones that basically consume, shit, eat, fuck and repeat. Nothing appears to have any real value, me personally, I value everything that I own, it hasn't come easy and I choose wisely what I spend my money on, I don't own a great deal but I genuinely love what I have and it all has a meaning. 

Mass Produced Soulless Garbage 

The same thing I've seen happen with current metal detectors has happened with drums and cymbals, brands that use to produce fantastic drum sets are churning out substandard instruments with low grade woods and metals. Leading cymbal companies that use to produce products that lasted for years are now making junk that cracks within the first 6 months of purchase. It's all mass-produced, impersonal bullshit designed to sell as fast as possible before they come out with a variation for twice the price. Fender guitars are another great example, it's mostly cheap junk sold at premium prices, the only way to buy a proper guitar through Fender is their custom shop option but then you're looking at ridiculous cost, I'd love to say you get what you pay for but I'm not so sure that you do anymore.

My drums are very personal to me, I've owned many kits and I've kept them all, each contains my unique vibration, my last set was very special for many reasons. Firstly the colour was a one off, DW drums literally produced one set with the colour that I named "psychic blue". secondly my dear friend Scott sold me this kit. Scott was tragically killed when he was working for the band Radiohead, the stage collapsed killing him instantly. Me and Scott worked together with the band Keane for around 9 years, all these memories and emotions are embedded within the wood of these drums, they're far more than an instrument to me.

It's A Voice Not An Instrument 

Metal detectors have fallen to the same fate, most of the current 'high-end' machines are cheap plastic meshed with carbon to create a satisfying veneer  The Equinox series might have been a game changer for many, 'who know fuck all about metal detectors', but it was built like a piece of junk, that's why I swapped the shaft for a carbon one straight out the door, that didn't stop the coil ears from failing multi times, again, none of this soulless shite is built to last, it's there to serve a purpose until a new model comes out with minor variations. Also it really does appear that Minelab use their customer base as field testers, overtime through forums and YouTube they get an understanding of the weaknesses within their current line of machines and then make minimal effort to improve them next time around with a considerable price increase. 

Spending Money You Haven't Got On Shit You Don't Need 

Everything I'm describing just adds to the mass-produced, easy come easy go ethos that's embedded itself into the human psyche the world over. This is proved yet again by the amount of people asking me if I'm going to sell any of my older model Nexus detectors and coils, why would I buy all this fantastic gear just to sell it all off when a new model comes out? It's the same with all my Tesoro machines, I would never sell any of them, even if I was skint, I value them all way too much. In my eyes all my metal detectors are little works of art, each has its quirks that, for me, are irreplaceable. Let's not forget that I'm using some Tesoro units that date back to the 80's and they're still going strong today. How many people are going to still be swinging their Equinox in 30 years time? I'm thinking no one, the battery would've fucked up thus rendering it junk.

Some might turn around and say that Tesoro's are also made from cheap plastic crap, sorry to disappoint you but there's nothing cheap about the materials used to make these machines. Many of the older models have metal boxes and metal shafts all with high quality dials and potentiometers that cost way more than the crappy screen you get on your Manticore and Deus 2. Also you can count on one hand the amount of coil ears that have broken on Tesoro coils, they're built like brick shit houses. Jack Gifford the creator of Tesoro cared about his creation and I never got the impression he was screwing his customers over. As the years continue to go by I believe certain models of Tesoro will becoming increasingly sort after. He made products to stand the test of time and that's the reason that I value all of mine so much.

Tel Lie Vision PROGRAMMING 

Loads of people cite Tesoro's as being crap because they went out of business, when Jack died the family clearly didn't have the company in their hearts. Over time it fell by the wayside, one of the main reasons for this is how easily led people are. Marketing is mind control and the masses, just like a heard of sheep will go to where they're guided. As the years have passed the system in which we live in has, and is turning most people into nonthinking automatons, the mainstream companies out there know this so they cater towards it. 

People don't want to think for themselves anymore, when swinging any audio only analog detector you have to do the thinking - Does This Make Them Shit? nope not at all, these types of machines will make you a better detectorist because you haven't got endless bullshit on a screen in front of you distracting you from the task at hand. You are literally hunting by ear alone, for me this is what makes my analog machines so brutal, especially in the iron. Despite what people think the feedback from a microprocessor is never going to be as fast and as instant as an analog circuit. Now you can come at me with all your physics bullshit as much as you want but what I stating has truth to it. 

Nothing beats my analog machines when hunting for shallow non-ferrous targets in the iron, now you can argue that the new 'magical SMF' machines beat all the analog detectors on this type of terrain but the FACT is they don't. When people perform unmasking demonstrations with all the high-end tech machines and compare them to the old "dated & obsolete" single frequency units. They claim that the SMF blows SF out the window, it doesn't, these new machines, very simply, have much faster processors than the older single frequency detectors. 

Microprocessors Won't Trump Analog Circuitry

Put any modern processor in an old single frequency unit and I believe you would see exactly the same level of unmasking as the SMF bullshit. The rednecks, fakers and inbreds out there pushing the whole "SMF" crap don't have any fucking concept of what they're talking about. Let's remember that any backward can position themselves as expert nowadays, you're leading YouTube experts are laughable to me and are misleading everyone that's taken in with their bullshit.

To conclude, if you work for something then you truly value it, because of this you're more liable to learn, understand and get the most out of 'said item'. Having an 'easy come, easy go' attitude will find you always looking ahead instead of taking the time to learn what you have in your hands. To master anything you have to learn it from the foundations and work your way up, this goes for pretty much everything in this life, it's like building a house, build it on sand and it will topple down. Think about it.