After being extremely skeptical for many years about so-called Bespoke / custom bat services, I finally went with B3 cricket and asked them to come up with a fairly extreme design.
You can see a video of the bat here with all the details of
dimensions (massive!),
weight (super light!),
ping (better than most 3lb bats I have seen), etc:
I will go in detail about why I picked this design (and why all of you should give it a try!), but first, here is a quick summary of my overall experience with the team at B3, and why I am inclined to say that I will only buy bats from them going forward.
Service: Absolutely outstanding. David at B3 was willing to endure many long skype sessions (some were quite late in the night for him), and helped me tweak every minute detail - edge/spine size at each point along the blade, the degree of concaving at each point along the blade, extent of the bow, exact dimensions of the handle and how it was set, the specific ultra light density cleft that was used (I chose from a selection of 5-6 clefts), etc. I was literally able to micro-manage every detail.
When I received the bat, I noticed that there was a slight discrepancy between the design and the final bat (the edge was slightly offset, which actually extended the hitting area even further, but was not what I wanted). They were very quick (within half a day) to respond to my concerns, and offered to take the bat back and send me a new one in its place (part of their "no quibble guarantee", which is fantastic for picky shoppers like myself). So, after making a few more minor tweaks to the design, I asked them to send me a replacement, and I got the second package very quickly.
Absolutely stellar customer service!More about the bat..
Weight: 2lb 7.75 oz, which is superb, given the size (and its not like many under-pressed bats one can buy from Asia - instead of under-pressing the bat, B3 was able to provide a genuinely ultra light density cleft to meet my requirements).
Finishing: Superb. I have come across most top-end bats, and this is right up there in the top tier.
Ping: As I said earlier, this bat pings better than most 3lb bats I have seen. The sweetspot is the largest I have seen on any bat (which is why I went with this design - more on that below).
Overall, both the customer service (I had actually been bugging David at B3 since LAST OCTOBER - asking countless questions on general concepts of bat design, and he was always quick to get back to me), as well as the quality of the finished product is phenomenal. I was able to get exactly what I wanted, and I paid no more than what I would pay for a top-end GM, GN, SS bat. Don't think I'll be going for any off-the-shelf bat again.
Now..as promised..For my fellow bat nerds out there, here is why I came up with this design. I noticed that most bats either: 1. Have concaving (with an extended spine), or, 2. Have little to no concaving but with the spine not running all the way down to the toe. The advantage of type 1 is that you have a nice long hitting area (due to the extended spine), but the disadvantage is that it is not too wide (due to the concaving). Type 2 has the opposite pros and cons, with the hitting area quite wide (because wood has not been scooped out), but not as long as that in type 1 (since the spine doesn't run all the way down). So unless one is Chris Gayle (and you can swing really heavy bats), we often have to compromise and pick one of the two types (the likes of Gayle just use a tree trunk and don't have to worry about this dilemma).
So, I wanted to combine type 1 and type 2, without increasing the weight I normally use (approx 2lb 8oz). I figured the best way to do this (other than to find a very low density cleft, which B3 was able to provide) is to have that extended spine down to the toe, but to limit the concaving to about 125-130mm from the toe. The rest of the bat from that point on has no concaving. I think its ok for that bottom part to be concaved since its mostly used to "squirt" away yorkers, and drive near-yorker length balls. The vertical extension of the hitting area down to the toe means that there is still plenty of meat to do this. The rest of the bat (125mm from the toe upwards) has no concaving (except a tiny amount near the splice), and so there is
MAXIMUM meat behind cuts, pulls, lofted drives, back foot punches, etc (any aggressive shot really).
I am extremely pleased with the results - there is hardly a dead spot on the bat. I would call it a beast of a bat, but I can't because it so light! Hats off to David and the team at B3 for helping me finalize the design, and for a top notch final product.
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Topic: My B3 Bespoke Bat Design - this is a belter! (Read 9506 times)