XP USER 17 Years
In early around 2003 I was asked to open a detecting shop in Falkirk by Detecnics which I did. In the shop was these NEW detectors which where a bit antiquated in comparison to your Whites XLT/DFXs or Minelab Explorers. These detectors had no meter or keypads but had knobs and buttons and made a weird noise. Me being a Whites & Minelab user at that time never paid any attention to them at first and thought who is going to buy them because on my tests they loved the dreaded coke and no way I was going down that road again.
Jimmy who on my Minelab post bought the first Explorer was really interested in any new detector and came into the shop asking to have a play with one. We had a play and I done my usual tests on recovery speed with a large rusty nail and a hammered penny. To my amazement this machine was finding the hammered under the nail with ease! This got my attention up and I had the perfect test site for it. Doing a wee bit more research on it I noticed on Gary Blackwells site he introduced XP to Regton ad they became distributors for XP. I like to give credit where it is due. Gary at the time was like me a detecting fanatic and especially machines but Gary sought out new manufacturers and models. I was more into creating content for forums and gary had put all his on his website. He does a lot for XP now which is rightly deserved as he has a vast knowledge on detectors and detecting and so does Nigel.
I took Jimmys new XP 
to one of my sites and honestly it was a learning curve with the tones and the coke OMG it loved it and I nicknamed it The Miner! It dug that much. I did percivere with it and bought my own with an 11” coil because from my tests it was deep and had lightening recovery. I found a good few hammered with it but the coke was a Killer and it was not just me. At the time I done most of the North England rallies as a dealer and everyone thought the same…The coke was the problem.
I was very into building forums at the time and built the XP Owners forum which had Regton as the sponsor. John Lynn was a member of this group.
BUTTT some clever guy had invented the COKE SWITCH where you pressed a Button (Not a switch..lol) that would give you a coke check. So if you had a mid tone you swept it with the button depressed and if it went quite it was coke…Hooray job done I hear you say but you did take a chance of it cutting cut coins out.
Soon after this the NEW XP Goldmaxx Power came out with a field test in the Treasure Hunting magazine by my friend The late John Lynn “The Norfolk Wolf” we all had forum names in those days. I was doing a trade stand at a N.E.W.S Rally and John said to me he would come and meet me as he phoned me a lot talking about detectors. I am glad I saved this photo of john and I as I lost all my photos due to a computer virus and could not recover many which was devastating. This was a new GMP with an Auto switch that cut out coke and not the cuts. This was a game changer and caused wars on the forums it was Explorer V Power lol This stuff still happens to this day but after 20 years of it you leave that to the newbies! I concentrate on what the detector offers as they are only tools to me and not a one WONDER detector to kill all others. I like different detectors as I love machines and finding out what they offer me on my sites.
The new Power was a top detector and I was invited to bring one to the UK Explorers Rally limited to ML users in Northampton to show the guys what it could do. Pauline and myself went down and I done my nail test which I knew the Explorer users had no hope in hell of doing and I did sell a lot of Goldmaxxs that week as they were very impressed.
The GMP continues to this day with the new Deus stem and with an 11” coil will compete with anything today on land. So if your not into meters and programs this is a great choice.
The next detector top from was the Deus which absolutely changed the detecting scene in the world with the Wireless technology and done so for many years. Being a single frequency meant people still had to use Multi Minelabs for the beach as Multis are not as affected by Salt water as Single frequencies.
2021 and NOW XP have a Multi frequency detector The DEUS II or D2 that you can use on the Land, Beach, Wading and Diving and is updateable online. This is a TRUE all round metal detector and at the moment nothing can match it as they can NOT do Diving! But if your not a diver then that’s not a worry for you you have many variables to the Deus II now you can use it with the headphone puck attached to the stem. You can also opt for the excellent ORX which is deadly on Hammered coins
As you can see I have been using XP since they came out in the UK and I was the first to promote them in Scotland. So when you buy from me you know that I am not just selling you a detector I have been a user of that brand for many years and know the progression of the models. This is vital if you want to get the best out of your detector.
Thanks Toddy