The Simple but Powerful Minelab Quattro

[John's Detectors]

I must say that it is really a good feeling to have a machine that is so simple but yet powerful and still have the advantages of digital processing at a reasonable price. The Minelab Quattro is your ticket to finding those deep treasures that you are seeking.

I have around 20 hours in on this machine and although it has a slower recovery than the SE it is worth the wait. Since the Quattro also has FBS technology it is called the Explorer's little brother. Like the SE the Quattro transmits 28 frequencies at the same time with all frequencies having the same field strength between 1.5 Khz and 100 Khz.

The LCD display is uncluttered and very intuitive and easy to see. The depth guage is quite accurate and the VID is not bad at depth. The pinpointing graph is different and seems to be effective. I don't use the built-in pinpointing a lot on many machines but this one is easy to use. The menu is straight forward and you can scroll through it with ease and select the individual functions of the Quattro and make the settings you want. The Quattro has 4 different hunt modes that can be customized to your preferred settings. Coin, Coin-Jewelry, Relic, and All-Metal. You also can cross save to each mode which is really cool.

The Quattro comes with the 10.5 inch DD coil. I love DD coils because you don't have to overlap swings as much as you do with a concentric. Also once you get used to the detect pattern of the DD coil it is very easy to pinpoint your target. After you have detected a target just back away from it and approach slowly and using the front and center of the coil to find the target again and it should be just at the edge of the coil on the front. I love the high tone on the Quattro when I find a good target. Tones will very according to the conductivity of the various targets.

The sweep speed of the Quattro depends on your ground conditions but is in general pretty slow. Recovery time for the Threshold is slow. You need to be patient to use this machine but I think it is worth it. So if your in a hurry this is not the machine you want to use. The Ground Balancing circuitry is a complicated multi stage system and handles those varying ground conditions very well. The Noise Cancel works really well and I rarely encounter an area that is too noisy to detect in because of power lines or comm. towers.

The sensitivity is really super and deep. I feel you definitely start to lose noticeable depth when you get below 11 or 12 on the sens. setting. If the machine gets erratic lower the sens. just enough to stop it. Of course don't over power the Quattro by running wide open although I can do this a lot, but you can actually mask some targets by being wide open.

There are also target icons for things like coins, jewelry, pulltabs and so on, but I don't ever have any use of these and ignore them myself. I always hunt in all-metal and use Ferrous tone a lot. If it weren't for the Explorer SE, the Quattro would be my favorite detector.

So when you take the Quattro out to the field or park it might be a good idea to bring along a spade. It is common to find various items at 8 or 9 inches and ID is good. I dug the outer ring of a cheap costume jewelry watch at 12" deep and the ID was indicating a coin at 38. The metal ring is the size of a silver dollar but broke apart at the top. So this is just an example of what the Quattro will do.

So if you can't quite reach the price of an Explorer SE I highly recommend the Quattro and still would even if you can get an SE. I hope this short write-up on the Quattro is helpful to many and it is my own personal experience with this machine. If I have missed anything I would be glad to field your emails or calls.

John Tomlinson,CET
John's Detectors
Blackwell,Tx.