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[WalkingWicket37]

Hello all

Another essay from me I'm afraid. This time on a Gunn and Moore Six6 I bought from the forums very own @wayward_hayward
I initially bought this for a teammate who likes the 404 shape, and had planned on showing him a few bats I'd sources for him to use for the season. This one may stay in my kit bag now though!

As well as the shape I was curious about the face, I could see from the pictures in the sale section it was grainy and had a butterfly stain on the back.

How it looked when I received it









There were a couple of dings in the back from where the postman had a quick kick around with it, but otherwise it was exactly as expected. Being a GM Six6 I'm sure you will all ve familiar with the shape. It was listed as weighing 2lb9 and I never weighed it before I started, but it did feel light so I'll assume that was right.

I then removed all the stickers, the toe guard and the factory fitted scuff sheet. If you're going to do something you may as well do it properly, eh!

I then attacked the bat with my orbital sander, using 120, 180 and 240 grit paper. After this I used both 240 and 400 grit paper by hand. This resulted in a nice smooth finish that I was happy with. I then put the bat on the scales and it was 2lb6 dead. This was the bat totally naked apart from the binding.






I then applied a coat of oil all over which bought out the colour in the wood a bit more, and applied 1.5 grips. I think it looks lovely, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.





And finally, as it had GM now I decided to round the edges of the bat. I did this gradually and am happy they are ready to go. Out of curiosity I then smacked the middle with my mallet and it didn't leave a dent, I guess ready to play means ready to play. I'm looking forward to trying this out in the nets on Friday.
Satisfied it was ready to play, I fitted a helicopter scuff sheet and fibreglass edge tape. In its current state the bat weighs 2lb10 dead and I'm more than happy with it. Who says you need to buy top end to get a decent bat!

[jamesisapayne]

Fantastic job cam, I still don't understand why the lower grades are bleached at all. I did the same thing to a flare 606 and it was probably the best playing bat I've had.

Personally I think the bleached look is worse than the natural wood with all its imperfections.

For people who aren't that worried about straight grains and all that malarkey, the gm 404-707 range are the best value bats around in my opinion.

[WalkingWicket37]

That's what I don't understand either mate.
Sure this is certainly no grade 1, but the stains and natural color change they cause (and the grains!) are much better on show than the anemic white look bleaching gives.

To me this bat looks lovely with all the imperfections on show. If I went into a shop I'd buy a bat that looked like this ahead of a bleached one every time. (And before anyone points it out, I know I bought this one while it was bleached, but it was a bargain price lol!)

[bostoncricketer]

Nice job there..I wish I had your refurb skills!

I think bleaching is just a marketing gimmick to make it sound like its a bad piece of willow so people go for higher grades. TBH I wasn't even aware of butterfly stained willow before I joined the forum as none of the big brands sell it as is...

[rawpace]

Looks lovely, much much better than the bleached white colour! The quality of the wood isn't bad either, the face definitely has some 'character' to it.... how does it play?

Pity you couldn't keep the GM stickers, would have nicely covered up the imperfections on the back near the splice!

[WalkingWicket37]

Looks lovely, much much better than the bleached white colour! The quality of the wood isn't bad either, the face definitely has some 'character' to it.... how does it play?

Pity you couldn't keep the GM stickers, would have nicely covered up the imperfections on the back near the splice!

The bat taps up nicely, but it isn't going to damage any ceiling or take the lights out straight away.
The sweet spot feels fairly long so it should ping fairly well when I actually use it!

I may get the ruler out and do some measuring now 

And here is a ping test video I've just taken for you! 
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CeRsLoCFeEY

[WalkingWicket37]

Okay then vital stats:

Weight in current state: 2lb10 exactly (1 kookaburra players grip with half a chevron on the bottom, helicopter scuff and fibreglass edge tape applied)

Edges at peak: 36.5mm
Edges at toe: 15.5mm
Edges at shoulder: 12mm
Spine at peak: 60mm
Concaving: there is a small amount of concaving present, not heavy but enough to help reduce the weight, while improving the balance and pickup.

As with all bats the toe does not ping, with the mallet starting to rebound about 48mm from the base of the bat.
The blemish in the middle of the bat also happens to be where the best response is, about 144mm from the toe, while the mallet continues to rebound to some extent to roughly the other blemish just below the splice (or where the base of the stickers would have been! I make that about 348mm from the toe.

So the long answer to "how does it play" would be:
The bat taps up well off most of the hitting area. You get a good 300mm of the bat that the mallet comes off nicely, so it has a nice "long middle" with only the toe and splice area not pinging (which is what you'd expect).
As with all GMs I expect the performance will get better with use, so this could go with reasonably pingy bargain bat to pocket rocket! 

And pictures to show the concaving

[StillNotOut]

What a transformation! Looks so much better now. Grabbed yourself another bargain mate!


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[hit4six]

What a transformation! I got given a few Kahuna 150s a few years ago and when you strip back the printed scuff sheet and the painted back, you get a decent bit of willow! Great work on the GM though.

[Number4]

Nice job... Looks great compared to how it started

[trypewriter]

The interesting thing to me with these bats is that if you look through the butterfly swirls the actual grains on the front are pretty straight - you do see it with a lot of butterfly's.

[gaurav23]

Jake from Vitas cricket too told me that the lower grade GMs take a little longer to perform but once you work on it, no reason why is wont play (as) well. Good work there [emoji1303]


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