Info on Troy Shadows please...

I've been seeing a lot of hype over these machines on the net. I know they're older & not made anymore. I tried doing some research on the company, but, couldn't come up with much. Can anyone give me the lowdown on what the story is on these units? They're VERY hard to get - everytime I see one it's sold within minutes. Info please



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2011 01:02AM by njnydigger.

Built by Troy Galloway at the Fisher Research Laboratory in Los Banos, CA.

No tone ID............ and no meter. Very deep.......... as deep as a 1266X/1021CZ/ETrac........... high quality. Relic unit. I believe they sold new for around the $900 mark.

Heck Troy has his own site and you can call him as he is a gentleman to talk to and his site has all you want to know on the unit.
Hope I am allowed to give this info [www.troycustomdetectors.com]

I believe the first several hundred made had an adjustable threshold and after that it was not adjustable but Troy can answer all your questions and still repairs them if needed as they are a well built unit.
Rumors are still around about him coming out with another model but in this economy tough for the little guy...and indeed Troy designed a quality unit if you like a non-metered unit...

Dan..... i HIGHLY encourage this type of information.

I chatted with Troy few years ago, he is a great guy and very helpful, it was at a detector show up in the north east

If I could, I would be a detector collector, and that one would be in the collection...nice machine that X5.

I have had a Shadow X5 and X2 for about 6 years. The X5 is an excellent machine. Weather proof, deep detecting and does have a toggle that will help you to decide dig or no dig.. Center default position functioned the same as dscrimination setting. Toggle up to detect coins or down to detect jewelry in the nickle or lower range. Both of these ranges self return to center position. Mine had a full range ground balance and special beach descrimination and was a tough knock about detector and weighed only 2 1/2.lbs. Troy was suspposed to be building a whole new detector with tri tone ID. Haven't heard much more about it.

I had to send mine in about a year ago for a blown speaker which was repaired and returned within a week or so with no charge. Like a previous post stated Troy is a real gentleman and very helpful!

Siuncoast Wally .

Ozzie....I thought everyone on here had a collection of detectors????
Today my buddy who I got into detecting last year, and has 1 detector said to me that all I need is 1 for land and 1 for water and I should sell the rest. I asked him if he was crazy, and I was going to try to reason with him but just said forget it.

After I sell my old White's, I will only have one..................and no rocks with notes attached through my windows please.

Just two and a borrowed one. A big collection would look pretty cool, neatly displayed, nice lighting, hanging on a wall. Have a few nice coins and relics found by the machine also on display under the detector with a spec sheet and some notes.......my wife would book me into the funny farm.

Speaking from a guy that has tried and owned a lot the fellow that buys a good unit and learns it well excells..

Do remember takes a while to learn what a unit is telling you and switching detectors can confuse the best of us and due to the weighting and ergonomics of each specific detector takes different muscles to swing and build up to last the hunt without any problems.

Having said the above learned a lot along the way and would have a garageful if I had a fatter wallet and what one unit or particuiar coil won't find another just might so use your disgression.

Years ago a fellow detectorist hunted old yards with a CZ and used all 3 coils in seperate trips and surprising at the results and it wasn't me as I am sort of a lots of detectors stock coil kind of guy...

Not a lot of anything negative to say about them .....They are very light weight...Very well built with the highest tolerance part's and in a weather proof package....

They can still be serviced although they are not being built right now.....there was a total of like 2100 x5's built and I believe around 1000 or so x3's....

The best one to get is the X5 version.......

Troy was always listening to the feedback from other user's and also his finding's since he is also an avid detectorist.....

The first 300 were recalled for an iron disc circuit enhancement if you wanted it done...the ones after 300 serial number automatically got the enhancement....

to find out if the one you get hold of is modded if it's 300 or below is to look in the battery box and see if the letter H is in the on a white sticker...If it has the H it's been modded....

Beginning at 700 Troy added a internal preset threshold while in disc mode....The reason being was people would hunt all metal and keep the thresh set at a barely audible hum which is correct but when they went to disc mode the thresh also determined the audio target volume....."Tesoro calls this super tuning" But Troy had it set to a more stronger thresh point while in disc mode via a internal pot wired to the disc all metal switch......this allowed you to jump back and forth between mode's and get "super tuned" performance without changing you're thresh knob to get it while in disc mode....It also helped if you say by accident bumped the thresh knob negative causing a decrease in disc depth and not even noticing it......

{on a side not the Tesoro Tejon is built the same way that when in disc the trash is set higher}


after 700 till 2100 I did not notice anything done to the design?



I myself like the 300 to 700 range the best or even a modded 1 to 300.....the reason being the iron disc did help a little on identifying deep nails at the minute cost of a little depth...But it could be gained back by super tuning the thresh for disc mode......after 700 it's set internal and set quite high but not as high as you can get it on you're on so there you get back a little extra punch...


You will also find the X5 likes high conductor's as well as low conductor's even though it's on 19khz!!! Troy himself I believe it was designed this boost circuit or at least helped work on it to an extent and it really does work....The X5 will offer some remarkable depth...Real deeeeeep.!!! on all conductor's and sizes of target's....


The only major drawback to the X5 is the lack of fine tuning ability in the nail range.....You will either dig nails or not but it's a very quick cutoff point one way or another ..Get it a hair high and the co-located targets will drop off quickly in nail infested sites.....But when it's right look out it will pull target's.....but remember when you change the Ground Bal.. you need to change you're disc because they are tied together in this particular circuit....It will dig most large iron when at nail disc with little or no hint of disc crackle to help you determine if it's iron...so also keep this in mind...

these High Freq power house detector's are really designed for worked out site's where all but the deepest faintest target's lay...


But it's great machine and hope to see something from Troy again in the near future...

Keith

Good write-up Keith.