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[Mattsky]

Very gentle, I guess.  There are website descriptions of bats, and then there are the bats that we actually pick.  The two aren't always exactly the same... 

Really? That's dented my faith in batmakers a bit. 

[ItsJustCricket]

Purely from knocking in bats of each type, I have noticed a slightly better mallet response off centre in the non-concaved bats.  It's especially evident on something like the Newbery Tour or Affinity Carbine and I have even explored this in one of my videos: Newbery Tour vs. Gray-Nicolls Powerspot.  Of course, mallet response doesn't necessarily equate to the same performance out in the middle, though.

Having thought about this, I believe that a concaved bat would only have a few mm (I guess roughly 4-6mm max.) less wood behind it off centre than a non-concaved/convex one, so it's really not much of a difference, and as others have said, pressing is more important to the performance...

[ItsJustCricket]

Really? That's dented my faith in batmakers a bit. 

It shouldn't. My point was mainly that when you hand-pick bats you come across anomalies quite a lot...

[Mattsky]

Surely if a bat doesn't measure up to what it's marketed as (and therefore what the customer expects and thinks they're getting), then the manufacturer shouldn't sell it! 

[King pair]

Surely if a bat doesn't measure up to what it's marketed as (and therefore what the customer expects and thinks they're getting), then the manufacturer shouldn't sell it! 

If we are saying that no concaving is a good thing, then why would you be put off and grumbling about getting a bat in the weight you wanted, but without the concaving that is suppose to be there?

[RossViper]

In my opinion, the most important factor in the performance of a bat is the pressing. The quality of the piece of willow will also have an obvious impact. You can be a dab hand at pressing but a dud cleft will make a dud bat.

Removing wood from various areas of the back of the bat affects balance and pick up more than anything. In my opinion concaving has little impact on performance, if any.

If removing wood from the back of the bat made such a difference then the GN scoop would be the worst bat ever made.

I have owned concaved and non concaved bats, some of my favourites including the best performing bat I've ever owned have been concaved.

AMEN!!!! This is correct!!! there is so much BS about what putting wood here and there does, but it has very little effect on the performance - outside of pick up.

[mini998]

I believe distribution of weight plays a big part similarly to pressing of a cricket bat. So I generally like non or minimally  concaved bats.

Also not in to big bats with lighter clefts , I feel end of the day what matters is weight not the size.

[Mattsky]

If we are saying that no concaving is a good thing, then why would you be put off and grumbling about getting a bat in the weight you wanted, but without the concaving that is suppose to be there?

If I order a white and blue long-sleeved striped shirt with a button-down collar, and I receive a white and blue long-sleeved striped shirt with a normal collar, I'd be kind of hacked off. Whether concaving is a good thing or not is irrelevant really. The point is, you're not getting what was expected, and what you ordered. As with the shirt, you'd have every right to send it back, no?

[procricket]

Bats are not complicated as people think.

Plain and simple your telling me volume does not make a difference in a bat, behave of course it does but other factors like hand speed and other variables come into it.

I hear pressing is most important yet do you know how to press a cleft to get the maximum out of the said cleft and what variables are they there.

Handles they not important too. Of course they are get a well pressed bat in accordance with the cleft and stick in a crap handle see what happens.

The issue is simple get a well pressed bat in accordance with the cleft allowance's with the best handle possible in your desired type and give it a bit of love and knocking you will not notice the difference between concaved and non.

But most group press and chance the variables plain and simple.

Oh and a bit of talent.

 

[Chad]

Really? That's dented my faith in batmakers a bit. 

There will almost always be variations, regardless of batmaker... If you asked for a custom and didn't get it, then fair enough, but stock shapes shaped by hand do have variations. If the bat was the same size, but less concave than usual due to the cleft being slightly lighter, you have more wood in the hitting zone so I'm not sure why you would complain if that happened!

[Mattsky]

Yep, absolutely. Wood's a natural product and clefts aren't the same, and so on. I'm saying if you're expecting a bat that's say, described as having a pronounced concave and you end up with something that's appreciably different, you'd be well within your right to ask a few questions. Thasall. 

[smokem]

Description says a concaved spine. It doesn't specify how much concaving there is and it certainly doesn't say "pronounced".

And how we interpret the amount of concaving is very subjective as we've seen many time on this forum.

I can see a little bit of concaving there, so to me there is no issue...