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Skullies II

dewcon

Quality Control Expert
Joined
Sep 20, 2006
Messages
8,373
Location
Gulf, Florida
I just got my Xcal II back from Joe (ole Beech Nut) with some mods which included his Skullies with the tube speakers. He took off the slimline 10 and added the 8" Sov coil i provided. He also did a PPer and Skullies with both having the CTX connectors for quicker removal. He is also using a more flexible gray cable on the PPer.... and gave me a new longer battery cable. Me like.

Hit the beach today for about 4 hours. It was a little choppy which produced a bit of a current. My current 10" set up has the pods back about 4" from the cuff for great balance and keeps the pods out of the water most of the time. However with the 8" and that current it was a learning process because the stick was a little more top heavy and the CF was lighter..... so it was wanting to float a bit more than i liked. The machine ran absolutely great and those headphone really keep out the noise. That little coil is really pretty hot and i was picking up stuff in PP i might have passed up with the larger coil. Not nearly the threshold noise from the 8" so i was catching weaker signals much easier. Little more patience since you cant cover as much sand. I never got a lot of targets at depth.... but that may just be what was there. What i did notice is the smaller coil nulled much better over iron.....it could really ID it.

The Skullies are just a outstanding pair of phones. The newest ones do give you a bit of a tunnel sound but it doesnt take long to recognize the tones.... but in PP these phones are just bad rssss. You dont get nearly the threshold noise so you find yourself hitting on those very tiny targets that others just walk right over. Baby are they loud without a lot of distortion.

I was curious when i got home so i set all my detectors on 6 sensitivity and could hit a dime at 8 1/2" in disc and 11 in PP even with the 8" coil. So im not loosing much depth i dont think once i run them at peek. But i did gain some good target id especially on iron. I know the machines in the water act differently.... the ones with the GGA PP and disc depth is about the same. The Skullies I is much deeper than disc. Ill have to hunt with the Skullies ii for awhile to see how the depth is with the. I may have to put them on the GGA machine and see if anything changes.

I think i made a very good decission to swap out the coil to an 8" one, especially since the machine was just setting in a box. It was do these mods or sell it since im not a real fan of the Xcal II. I wanted to have the coil swapping ability but we decided to hold off and let Joe do more testing. All N all ...... if you dont have an 8" and you have an extra machine this could really be a nice nitch machine for smaller gold. Those Sov coils IMO is the way to go. Just seem to be solid and good coils.
 
Thats sounds sweet!!!Now that my warrentee is just about up ide love to have Joe turn my,Xcall into a,"Super Xcall"But from what i read looks like hes givin up on Mods for the majority :no:...I would try it myself but im not to sure i can pull it off..Anyway congratz on getting a super Xcall far as im concerned you now have the best water machine out there...GL HH
 
An eXcal is hopefully on the cards at some point, I was reading that OBN is not doing mods but he highly recommended Kellyco for eXcal Mods.
 
Yes I am stopped till next Jan, (Hunting Seasons Again) I did a few for the hardcore hunters on new ideas. If anyone can tell me if something is going to last it is these guys. I do a lot of hunting myself but I have found everyone hunts different and conditions from one place to the next varies so I spread around a few ideas and next year we are one step closer to a better way. And I highly recommend Kellyco on all the mods, Barry and Dave are some of the best...!! But I get to play and they don't, with new ideas..

Dew did you notice the audio change you had before when the pod went under?

I love those Tubes Buddy!! And the reason I went back to the Peltors, they are the best and the closest to total silence, and work best with the tubes...
 
Dave and Barry do good work at kelleyco.... and now do GGA headphones and a PPer. But no one does the skullies which really complete the machine. Aqua Joe does some mods for me because I break stuff..... im his Murphys Law lol. Hes done a lot of videos and has a few kits I think...... but he really trying to do more hunting. Paying off since I saw he has 6 gold rings so far.
 
I love those Tubes Buddy!! And the reason I went back to the Peltors, they are the best and the closest to total silence, and work best with the tubes...

Well, you just saved yourself another aggravating email from me wondering why you went back to the Peltors...... I really like the looks of those other ones you had been using BUT I agree, those Peltors are comfortable and quiet.
Pretty easy modding the Amphibian shells for the tubes too.

Cliff
 
Joe.... only thing different is a bit of a pop for a better explanation over an iron target. No the threshold doesnt raise. Cliff i believe the peltors allows a little more accustics. They do fit tight, comfortable, and really keep outside sound out. Hey Joe....... why cant tubes be put over the other speakers in my Skullie Is? Joe really has the PPer down and those end caps are just sweet. The only thing ive noticed is the phones cable is pretty tight so im letting it hang to stretch some. As far as the machine..... shes working fine and seems to be one hot little coil.
 
Congrats. I did not opt for the tubes with mine as fresh water lakes do not have that much background noise. But testing them I love them. Can't wait to hit the water.
 
Cliff or Joe...... would a tube put around the other Skullies speaker have the same affect?
 
No..

dew, 2 more gold today with the little 800 .. and tubes
 
First gold with my up graded 8 today .....8.2 gram Joe. Still not sure if I like it better than my 10 Thou. U are on a roll Joe.....having one heck of a year.
 
dew that machine pulled a couple gold for me also...so that is 3 gold in less then 2 weeks...
 
First gold with my up graded 8 today .....8.2 gram Joe. Still not sure if I like it better than my 10 Thou. U are on a roll Joe.....having one heck of a year.

No picture it didn't happen,,,,,,:laughing:you sound with mixed feelings,,,,,,,I took my 8" out today and noticed it was picking up more nickels,,,,,I kept telling you to try it and you will see how hot it can be hitting targets and will find a use for it on days when waves are higher and/or strong current,,,,is more sens to small stuff also,,,,and really don't loose depth,,,,,,,nice work on the gold,,,GL HH
 
Nothing fancy Tim..... but i can melt this one. If id got the ones Joe found id be having a pretty good month.:lol: The depth on the ring was about 6" and sounded like a deep bottle cap until i opened the hole ..... oh and chased it around for about 5 min. You know what im talking about..... missed it missed it. some of them just dont want to come out of the hole. Kind of like the ones where the guy says he dug a ring at 2'.:laughing: It does PP good thou. She air tests just a tad less than the 10".... but ive still not dug anything deep like i normally do with a 10.

Joe has this setup to a science thou...... real clean and he just keeps improving and trying new things. Watch out guys if he ever gets into the CTX. I say that because i know hes been talking to Frog about those seals.
 
Nothing fancy Tim..... but i can melt this one. If id got the ones Joe found id be having a pretty good month.:lol: The depth on the ring was about 6" and sounded like a deep bottle cap until i opened the hole ..... oh and chased it around for about 5 min. You know what im talking about..... missed it missed it. some of them just dont want to come out of the hole. Kind of like the ones where the guy says he dug a ring at 2'.:laughing: It does PP good thou. She air tests just a tad less than the 10".... but ive still not dug anything deep like i normally do with a 10.

Joe has this setup to a science thou...... real clean and he just keeps improving and trying new things. Watch out guys if he ever gets into the CTX. I say that because i know hes been talking to Frog about those seals.

Geez, you are using a 7-1/4" coil and you are chasing targets around? How long does it take when you are using the bigger coil.... when you come up here sometime, I'll let you try the 17" on the CTX and go get a sandwich from the snack shack while you are digging out the target..... :laughing:

Seriously though, maybe you need a bigger scoop...... :-)

Just kidding buddy!!

Cliff
 
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