The Bill Wyman Signature detector is far and away the best machine for starting out in the hobby. There's also a really informative website which points the way on all sorts of questions which the beginner is likely to have. (
www.billwymandetector.com)
The Bill Wyman Signature Detector comes from Bill's years of detecting experience plus top technology from the best known name in metal detecting, C.SCOPE.
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| Operating System: |
Non-motion: 17kHz |
| Search-Head: |
15cm ISOCON search head |
| Battery Power: |
1 x PP3 (MN1604, 6LR61) |
| Weight: |
1.153Kg |
| Features: |
On/Off control, inland/beach selection switch, Retune button, Audio Discrimination, Adjustable stem length. Counterbalanced stem with armrest, Headphone socket. |
| Ideal For: |
Beginners on inland or beach sites. But this beginners machine is such a smart idea, a fair few professionals are getting one as a back-up to their regular detector. |
Bill Wyman Signature detector.
Bill Wyman's fascination with metal detecting is well known within the hobby. His name often crops up in the treasure hunting press and even in the nationals and on TV. A few of us are fortunate enough to have been invited to Bill's home and take a look at the staggering array of finds he has accumulated through his years of successful detecting. Besides being a great man of music, Bill is also something of an authority on metal detecting. Bill's detector of choice, over the years, has always been a C.Scope. So, what a great idea it was for Bill and C.Scope to get together and design the perfect metal detector for the beginner. The Bill Wyman Signature detector has got his name on it. It's a serious metal detector for a great start in the hobby of treasure hunting.
The design philosophy behind Bill's detector is firstly, simplicity, because simplicity of operation means less frustration and more enjoyment - important when you're trying to get the hang of a new hobby. Secondly, everyone's idea of the perfect detector is one which only reacts to valuables. Unfortunately, that's an ideal which is an impossible dream; but the Signature detector is the next best thing. It actually sorts targets into 'probably good' and 'probably bad' categories and allocates a high pitched tone to the former and a low pitched tone to the latter. It sounds super so I was keen to check out the reality.
The first thing which strikes you when you take the machine from the box is its light weight. It's clearly a serious metal detector and its solidly built. Considering that part of the market for this detector will be with children, the combination of weight to robustness is just right. A small 9 volt battery slots neatly into the rear of the control box. The first test of the Signature detector was on open grassland along the edges of an old drovers road across the Wye Downs. I set the ground switch to 'inland', switched on and adjusted sensitivity to the threshold point. And I was off, head down into the wind trying to imagine where some merchant of old might have lost the contents of his purse - his loss, my gain, 400 years down the road. I found that you can search slowly with this machine. You don't have to whip the search-head back and forth like you have to with some brands of detector. The depth of detection is good and its easy to localise the exact target position. Sure enough, the good targets give a high note and bad targets a low note. I really enjoyed my morning in the countryside with the Bill Wyman Signature Detector. I only found relatively modern coinage on this test, some pre-decimal, as I think the area has been used as a picnic site for quite some time. Not the hoard of gold pieces I was hoping for, but then the machine certainly gave me the confidence that, if the gold sovereigns had been there, this detector would have found them.
VERDICT
This machine does exactly what it says it will do on the box. The Bill Wyman Signature detector is far and away the best machine for starting out in the hobby. There's also a really informative website which points the way on all sorts of questions which the beginner is likely to have. (www.billwymandetector.com)