From a quick look online these were built in the late 1970's, so I suppose if you buy one that works it could be $60 well spent, other than that I've never seen or used one personally. Hopefully one of the veterans will know more about this machine.
My fathers got one. It belonged to my grandfather. Perfect nic as well and works fine. Haven't had a chance to use it on the field though. But back in the day they cost a months pay and one of the best available. But that was a long time ago. Technology has changed quiet a bit.
I have an old detecting book from the seventies and it has a bunch of detectors listed from that era together with a air test. They all air tested pretty decently.
Let downs will be recovery speed as the electronics are analogue and linear unlike the microcontroller and high bandwidth processors used nowadays (for example the current Fisher Gold Bug runs two separate Microchip PIC microcontrollers).
Hi,
That was my first detector, I still have it, fair/good for parks and dry, I say DRY beach sand. Is slow to "reset" and ground balance can be touchy, it is mainly the switch not the ground, worst luck but a good electronics repair shop can fix that switch/knob. Worth $60 good to start with. Just remember it is not even shower proof.