Tesoro Sabre II Blue Box - Info Please

[bradsguns]

Estate sale this weekend has a Tesoro Sabre II for sale. The control box is blue and just says Sabre II. Also, runs on a single 9volt. I am unable to find any info on these as the Tesoro manuals have the silver & golden Sabre IIs, but if I recall they are brown/gold/black colored boxes...Any info appreciated(value too)...Im just looking for a decent little unit for my 7 year old nephew.
Thanks,
Brad

PS: Coil is solid(no hole) white, concentric discriminator.

 

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[U.K. Brian]

Bit odd the colour. After the Mk 1 which had its own rather stylise control box I only remember the Sabre II's having the brown control box. Coil for these was the 8" concentric with the open centre though I think there was an 8.5" that was solid plus 4" and 11" as other options.
Frequency was 12 kHz and the II used Tesoro's ED 120 expanded discriminator that's non linear and provides plenty of width down the lower range.

If its working correctly it would be a really good buy for a youngster as it combines light weight and good performance with a minimum of controls.
The price depends on condition. In Europe they joined the ranks of cult detectors several years back so prices rose rather than dropping.
Check out Gary's report at http://www.garysdetecting.co.uk/sabre

 

[SvenS]

Estate sale this weekend has a Tesoro Sabre II for sale. The control box is blue and just says Sabre II. Also, runs on a single 9volt. I am unable to find any info on these as the Tesoro manuals have the silver & golden Sabre IIs, but if I recall they are brown/gold/black colored boxes...Any info appreciated(value too)...Im just looking for a decent little unit for my 7 year old nephew.
Thanks,
Brad

PS: Coil is solid(no hole) white, concentric discriminator.

Another one just appeared in MO and now on Fleabay.
Any chance you can send me some good clear photos for my website?
http://treasurelinx.com/tesoro.html

 

[U.K. Brian]

Thats an interesting one. Wonder if it was produced for a specific dealer or retail chain to sell. Could just be an interim model or cheaper priced version as Compass did with "Cue" machines where you got a Compass in a plastic box but saved some money. Box is very Gold Saber'ish but blue ?

 

[bradsguns]

That is very similiar to the one I saw here in MO, except this one had the number 2 on the side instead of the II(though II was used on the top). Also was not near as clean as the one you pictured. I thought at first it may had been painted, as the finish was a little rough. And yes, I found the one on the Bay and sent them a few questions too.
Brad

 

[Tnmountains]

I have one of the older Golden Sabre II in my arsenal. It is a good deep machine .It has more controls than that blue though and runs on 2 - 9 volts. Great guest machine it can hunt.

 

[SvenS]

Information says that it was made for Montgomery Ward by Tesoro to be sold in their catalogs.

Tesoro used the same housing and armrest set up as they did when they made detectors for Pillar

In 1984 Tesoro diversified and increased its market share by making two different private label agreements. The first was with Montgomery Wards catalog sales department. Wards wanted a detector line that was both well known and distinctive to their store. After some negotiation, Tesoro agreed to produce the Sabre II and the Sabre Supreme. These detectors had Tesoro Technology in a different shape and color of the control housing. After the deal was set and the catalogs produced, Wards decided to get out of catalog sales. So Tesoro was featured in the very last Montgomery Wards catalog that was ever produced.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Not sure of the blue color, but I'll go with Sven's explanation (good work Sven!).

There was also more than 1 generation of the Sabre. Not sure if the earlier version was called a "I" though (verses a "II"), but there was some sort of improvement, or second generation, in the Sabre line. I think the newer/later Sabre was supposed to go deeper, but some of the hardcore fans and techno-buffs claimed that there was a compromise in the averaging ability of the later versions. In the earlier versions, they supposedly average in and around iron better (thus made better ghost town machines, for instance). Perhaps they didn't go as deep, or perhaps they were weak on larger iron or something, but they excelled in seeing through small iron (as all two-filter discriminators do, to some degree) better than their successor.

In general, any sabre is just going to be a simple to use 2-filter discriminator. They are not very deep-seeking (when compared to power-house machines on the market), nor will they work in mineralized soil, or mineralized wet salt very well. But when used in certain land environments, can run circles around power-house machines. These type hunt locations would be ghost town type hunting where nails abound (and depth and mineralized soil isn't really an issue), or urban demolition sites brimming with iron cr*p, etc.... They also lack TID. But for relicky dig-all type sites (urban demo's, ghost towns, ruins, etc...) a hunter will gladly sacrifice that to see conductive targets amidst bountiful nails.