Tesoro's Bandido and Silver Sabre 'series' ... Part 2:
Sorry my last post, or most of them, get a little long. Bad eyes, old, and I types with one finger per hand. The last one took hours with periodic breaks.
Okay, but quickly, for me, let me discuss the
Bandido 'series' which had 4 models, and the
Silver Sabre 'series' which also had 4 models.
In July of '83 Tesoro introduce their first popular slow-motion, silent-search model, the Inca, that featured a Quick-Response and Fast-Recovery. It immediately grabbed my attention because I was looking for a so-called 2-Filter model with those features for hunting very iron littered ghost towns, or working through urban renovation sites or long-vacant lots where houses once stood.
I started detecting when I built my first Metal / Mineral Locator in March of '65, used home-built units until the summer of '68 when I got my first factory-produced detector in-hand. I mainly hunted the very, very plentiful city parks, schools, easements and anywhere I could, then worked my first ghost town the start of My of '69. What we had worked, but didn't work terrific. I went to VLF/ TR-Disc. models in '77 and favored them over the fast-sweep or so-called 4-Filter offerings, but the Inca made an immediate change in my direction.
I hunted a lot, but with the Inca I changed to working ghost towns and other old-use locations about 85% of the time. The Inca operated t 12 kHz, came with an 8" Concentric coil, and featured a manual GB control for the All Metal mode, and the silent-search Disc. mode worked off the GB setting with a slightly positive offset. Within 24 hours I swapped to the 7" Concentric coil off my Mayan.
In the fall of '83 Tesoro introduced their first Silver Sabre that was in a smaller-size housing and was simply based on the Inca's Discriminate circuitry. I added one of those to my outfit right-away, also, to have a constant-carry detector that was light-weight and easy to grab for tot-lots and quick-hits of sidewalk repair, etc. It came standard with a 7" Concentric coil which ws great! I hunted dense trash and confined brushy areas.
The Four Tesoro Silver Sabre’s:
The ‘original’
SILVER SABRE was introduced in late 1983. It utilized the now-popular ‘S’ rod design and was powered by 6-AA batteries. It operated at 12 kHz and came supplied with a 7”concentric coil. The control housing was metal, and was positioned under the rod just ahead of the foam hand grip, placing the controls at finger-tip reach. They had a larger speaker than used today and emitted a strong audio response. The headphone jack was positioned on the front-center of the control housing in a sloped section of metal so as to face somewhat downward.
It had one toggle which allowed the operator to select between two motion-based modes, Discrimination and All Metal. This was not a conventional, threshold-based All Metal mode, but essentially a motion discriminate mode with only enough rejection to ignore most ground mineral and respond to any metal target, ferrous or non-ferrous. Additionally, there were two variable control knobs to set the Sensitivity and Discrimination levels.
This model was the first of their successful silent-search Discriminators in a turn-on-and-go design. That is, you didn’t need to manually adjust the Ground Balance setting as it was already preset at the factory. Also, the Tesoro approach was based on a so-called 2-Filter, slow-motion design which meant whipping the coil was not necessary. The slow-sweep, quick-response and fast-recovery allowed you to pinpoint in the Disc. mode, which was all the ‘original’ model offered.
In August of 1986 Tesoro brought out the
SILVER SABRE PLUS which used the same physical control housing. It also operated at 12 kHz. This model introduced a new rod-tip isolator design, and it came equipped with a white, thin-profile, open-center 8” coil. It had new electronics over the ‘original’ and now a Threshold-based All Metal mode was part of the design. That made it handier for pinpointing, as well as for sizing and shaping a target. You could also search in that mode, if desired.
Additionally, there was access that allowed you to get to the internal Threshold trimmer and Ground Balance trimmer. There was a little added depth, mainly due to the 8” coil, but the ability to have a true All Metal mode was well received. It also had the two controls to set the Sensitivity and Discriminate levels. Personally, I didn’t like most of the Silver Sabre Plus models, even though I was a dealer, because the trimmer adjustments were too touchy for the more mineralized ground I often hunted.
Another thing both of these models had in common was that they used a range of discrimination adjustment that was similar to what many manufacturers used. That is, even when at the minimum Disc. setting they were still well above Iron Nail rejection and knocked out quite a bit of small foil and even some thin gold jewelry.
In 1991 Tesoro introduced what I feel was then the best of the Silver Sabre series for hunting Iron trashed sites. It was the
SILVER SABRE II and it was housed in the brown ABS plastic housing. Operating at 10 kHz, this model was supplied with the slightly thicker brown 8” open-center coil. Tesoro switched from the 6-AA battery pack to using two 9-V batteries. It also featured both a traditional, Threshold-based All Metal mode and Tesoro’s now popular slow-motion, silent-search Discriminate mode.
The control face retained the single toggle switch to select the operating mode, a variable Sensitivity control and Discriminate control, and a better positioned headphone jack that didn’t face the dirt or wet grass when you set the detector down. There was easier control of the Threshold setting by way of a tiny knob which protruded through a hole on the back of the control housing. This knob adjusted the Threshold audio trimmer on the circuit board.
Now, for the bad and the good points. For those who didn’t use headphones and relied on the internal speaker, Tesoro had switched to a smaller speaker which was more compact and lighter in weight. But the result was a much softer or quieter audio response compared with the two former models in this series. Fortunately, most savvy detectorists prefer good quality headphones.
Now the good news, and this is what made that model the best of the first three Silver Sabre offerings. Tesoro used an improved discrimination circuitry, which they introduced with the Bandido about a year earlier, and they coined the term “ED-120 Discrimination.”
Prior to the ED-120 Disc. circuitry, the Tesoro models had more rejection at their minimum setting. The “120” references the approximate number of degrees (120°)
(viewed from the right) of the full acceptance portion of the sine wave (180°), while prior models only accepted about 100°± of that arc which includes the higher conductive targets and has more rejection of the lower-end non-ferrous range as well as Iron.
The result of having more acceptance and less rejection means that you improve the responsiveness on thin, low-conductive gold jewelry, and since there is less bias toward rejected Iron it eliminates some of the masking issues in Iron littered sites.
Trust me on this, the Silver Sabre II was the best of the Silver Sabre series at that time for hunting trashy ghost towns and renovation sites, especially when equipped with a smaller coil such as the 7” concentric.
The 4th and final model in the Silver Sabre series was the
SILVER SABRE µMAX which was released in October of 1997. Like the Silver Sabre II it still, operated at 10 kHz, and it still was powered by a 9V battery, but this time it only required 1-9V battery. The new µMAX
(pronounced microMAX, not You MAX)) used the same small housing that was first used for the Target ID display of their Toltec II, then for the Sidewinder series. This small, top-mounted housing used small, surface-mount technology that was admired by many for its light, handy feel.
This model had three variable controls on the front panel. One for Sensitivity, one for Discrimination, and one for Threshold adjustment. It no longer had a toggle to select an All Metal search mode because few people hunted in that mode which was primarily used for pinpointing a target. Instead, Tesoro added a big, easy-to-activate push button that momentarily switched to a static all metal Pinpoint mode.
One thing Tesoro had lacked was a little extra depth and audio response from those targets that were typically in the mid-depth to deeper range of detection. Tesoro addressed this by incorporating their “Low-Noise / High-Gain” circuitry. The result was much better depth, and audio response on targets in that detection range, and it saturated the audio more as well.
The trade-off, however, was that this new circuitry worked really well in Iron free areas, but they had a little difficulty in sites with a dense littering of Iron Nails and other smaller Iron where the Silver Sabre II had a 'slight' edge.. The Silver Sabre µMAX still used the very good ED-120 Discrimination concept, but was a little noisier when hunting in Iron trash.
As for which of the four Silver Sabre models was the best, I’ll have to say two of them were. Personally, I had great success with the Silver Sabre II when I hunted my favorite ghost towns, but most often I was using the 'original' Bandido or Bandido II. They had the same ED-120 Disc. circuitry as the Silver Sabre II and I preferred / prefer to have manual GB control, but that discrimination helped find a lot of good coins and trade tokens and buttons at a site where they had been otherwise masked with earlier Tesoro models.
My all-time favorite, as I look back on them, is the Silver Sabre µMAX for most hunting I do. Light, handy, quick-use PP button, and I preferred the potentiometer to adjust the Threshold rather than the original knob-in-the-trimmer approach.
The Four Tesoro Bandido's:
Even though these models were long discontinued, they had remained in service and popular for many avid detectorists simply because they work, and can work quite well. I hope this post might be of help.
Let's first address the spelling and pronunciation of the latter model's name. Tesoro used the 'µ' symbol which is NOT a letter 'u. The 'µ' symbol is an electronic term that stands for 'Micro.' Tesoro used the term in front of the word 'MAX' to say 'µMAX,' which is pronounced
'microMAX' as a description of the micro-sized housing that provided MAXimum performance. It is not pronounced You-MAX.
The
BANDIDO (original) was a replacement for the Eldorado and was a departure from the metal housing to the brown ABS control housing. It operated at 10 kHz, had a white 8" open center coil, and had four variable controls and one toggle switch. You could adjust the Sensitivity, Discriminate Level, and Threshold. Also, there was a 10-turn Ground Balance control. The Toggle was the familiar three position with the lower setting for Disc., the center for Threshold-based All Metal, and the upper a momentary spring-loaded position for retuning the All Metal mode. It had what I felt was a "comfortable" auto-tune speed for general applications.
What really set it apart from the earlier Tesoro models was that it was their first model to employ the ED-120 discriminate circuitry. This allowed the operator to adjust down lower in the discriminate range towards Iron. At the minimum setting, the ED-120 models will usually be at a point to just knock out surface nails either cleanly or with a distinguishable "tick" or "double-tick" and be very close to the ferrous / non-ferrous break-point.
The
BANDIDO II is virtually the same detector, except for two visual and one audio change. Still operating at 10 kHz and in the same package, Tesoro went to the 8" open-center brown coil. You will also notice that they added a second toggle switch labeled Normal and Auto-Tune. The "Normal" setting simply means there is
no auto-tune and the operator will have to manually re-tune with the other toggle switch to restore the audio Threshold. In the "Auto-Tune" setting, the re-tuning speed was increased from the comfortable Auto-Tune speed in All Metal of the original model. This was to appeal to those who used the Bandido's for Nugget Hunting.
Personally, I preferred the original Bandido as the white coil was lighter weight and less tiring, and I thought the auto-tune speed was just fine. The Bandido II, however, was also a super performer for me in the Iron Nail infested western ghost towns I enjoy searching.
If you scan the older literature to the present, you'll see that every Bandido model has been touted as being good for relic, coin and nugget hunting. Even though they've claimed it as a "nugget hunting" tool they erred with the introduction of the Bandido MicroMax.
The third model in the series was the
µMAX BANDIDO. It was supposed to be an 'updated' model using the small-size microMAX housing and going from a two 9-V battery power to a single 9-V battery. Don't let the performance of
most of the small 'microMAX' packaged models fool you. They will perform! But with the third version µMAX Bandido, which was based on the µMAX Sidewinder, the operating frequency was increased to 12 kHz, which was fine, but one control adjustment was omitted. A Threshold control.
Since most searches are made in the silent-search Disc. mode, that's no big deal for most Coin Hunting hobbyists, but for a detector that is touted as being a "universal" type, and one intended for the Relic Hunter or Gold Nugget Hunter, who will often search in the Threshold-based All Metal mode, having control of the Threshold setting is very important.
Additionally, they made one other change and that was to go from a 10-Turn Ground Balance control to a 3¾-Turn control. Certainly this would appear to have less range and less fine-tuning ability as compared to the 10-Turn type.
Honestly, I would bet that most hobbyists would be just as well served by the µMAX Bandido as with the two earlier versions that had the Threshold control. Still, there were enough of us who preferred to have more control over the unit and wanted a manual Threshold control and Tesoro apparently listened. They also listened to those who had complained about the quick drop-off in audio with depth
(loss of depth and an abrupt modulated audio of what was there) and hoped for better deep-target signal response.
The fourth and final entry in the Bandido series is the
BANDIDO II µMAX. Note that they moved the 'µMAX' name to the back-end of the nme. This unit was back down at 10 kHz and is quite different than any of the earlier Bandido models. Externally it now featured a Threshold knob on the control panel, and I like that
However, they have gone to what they call a "low-noise, high-gain" circuit that I like as it will either go deeper, or you will perceive better depth because the audio response is saturated out on deeper targets than the earlier Tesoro models. With the added depth and louder response you have a trade-off however. The newest Bandido II MicroMax does NOT handle the sites with an abundance of surface nails as well as the earlier Bandido models.
They still have their noted "quick response" and that lets them work well at sites where there are a lot of targets and you can pick out partially-masked near-by targets quite well. There is something in the "low-noise" filtering that creates a condition I refer to as "shut-down" and they do not handle good targets among Iron Nail trash as well as the former discriminate design.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the µMAX Bandido. I had one that I felt was "hot" and it worked quite well. But the Bandido II µMAX is also a fine detector that became my favorite for most applications. It is because they incorporated the new 'Low-Noise' / 'High-Gain' circuitry. The result? Much improved depth-of-detection and more saturated audio within that enhanced depth range than the former models.
So, there you have it. There are the 4 Bandido series models as they progressed.. They are all good detectors, you just have to tailor your selection to suit your applications and budget since the newest model has jumped up to a more demanding price.
If you have any questions, please feel welcome to e-mail me directly and we'll discuss the Silver Sabre or Bandido models of interest. For me, I keep one of each of the final versions in my personal-use outfit. The Bandido II µMAX and Silver Sabre µMAX.
(Note: There was no Silver Sabre II µMAX.)
I hope this is of some help or interest to someone.
Monte