Posted by Mr. Bill on 12/14/2005, 5:27 am, in reply to "My vision of the modified IDX buyer..." I was a newbie in metal detecting, and had made a purchase for myself of a new Whites Spectrum XLT when they first arrived on the market, mid 90’s. I learned to use that unit for everything, beach, land, and a attempt to use it in real trashy areas. I found out the hard way the fast sweep, 4 filter XLT just didn’t cut it in heavy metal trash. Well the internet was just getting started as far as metal detecting forums, and we all meet on one every day. Conversing with Monte, and he had mentioned I should try the Classic III, (before the day’s of the ID, IDX), to hunt the trashy sites. I purchased a Classic III SL, it worked well, but it left a couple things desired in it’s operation. Right off the bat one could tell the threshold drive was just too high to use with headphones, and it overpowered the deep target signals. Then because I liked to do the salt beach, it needed to have it’s ground balance point changed. The rest is history. I popped open the case, and moved the trimmers to the outside of the case as potentiometers so I could adjust as needed. Monte’s was the first one I had modified outside of my personal one. When I offered the modifications to others, I did it with the thought that there were others out there that would like to have a inexpensive super detector to use in specialized areas. This would give them the ability to set the ground balance, and the threshold audio strengths to their needs. I need to give credit to Whites here, also. They were very helpful with my modifications, and in recent years when they were going to come out with the Pro version of the Classic III, and IDX, they informed me of what they were changing to get the increase depth. I later incorporated those changes into the modifications, although I will admit, I’m a tad bit more aggressive on the changes than the factory is. As far as the total amount out there of the modified Classic series units, I can only guess. I would say between 100 to 150 total of all units combined. That’s it in a nut shell. The greatest thing in the equation is the basic Classic circuitry. That’s what makes it work. It’s a real good basic design, and there’s nothing on the horizon I see that’s going to challenge it. It’s too bad that Whites choose to drop the model. With a small re-design it could have been marketed as a specialty detector with a few more mods. on it. Later
Link: Surfscanner Detector's
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