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[WalkingWicket37]

Me again

Last review of the night from me. Here is my lovely new GN500 courtesy of Jake @Vitas Cricket
As soon as I saw the GN500 (or the four scoop if you prefer) was being re-released I fell in love.
I got in touch with Jake and placed a pre order around August time. Having already ordered a Masuri I asked him to keep hold of this and post all my items together. I received a rather large box today and was thrilled to receive this.

Looks
8 grains, a couple of small blemishes on the face and a strip of heartwood about 2/3 of an inch wide on the right handers inside edge. In short - beautiful.
The White and silver checkerboard stickers look lovely in the flesh, with the smaller red sticker on the back looking rather classy.
I also love the look of the four silver scoops, which are painted this year instead of putting stickers in there.





Profile
Nice shape with a mid/mid-low sweet spot.
Other than the scoops this is a full profiled bat. That may sound stupid, but looking down the spine there is no concaving at all, just scoops removed.
The bat has 34mm edges and a 60mm edges.





Weight
I have added an extra half a grip to the bottom half of the handle, and the bat weighs a touch over 2lb11.
I wouldn't have guessed this on the pickup though, without knowing the weight I'd have guessed at between 2lb9 and 2lb10, not a wand but a very nice feel and balance to this bat.



Ping
I have only tapped up an old ball so far but the bat seemed to respond well.
Jake did hand pick this bat, so I was always confident it was going to perform.

The knit picks
Now this may be a bit pedantic, but I notice things a lot of people wouldn't care about.

Firstly the bat arrived with no tape round the bottom of the grip. No big deal, I added that myself when I was playing with the handle setup. However, the Gray Nicolls logo is too high up the sticker! The tape covers the top of the handle. Unimportant, but I noticed it.



Secondly you may notice the back sticker isn't quite central. It is also slightly lifting on one side.
Not a big deal, but it's something I noticed when admiring my new bit of wood.



And lastly the scoops. The paint is a little bit rough round the edges, and I think there's some scoop shape markings outside the scoops. Again this doesn't really detract from the bat, but it's one of those things sad people like me notice.



The verdict

Despite my knit picks, I'm over the moon with the bat Jake picked for me.
It looks nice, has the right number of grains and heartwood in the right place. For the money it's a lovely looking stick and I'm sure it will serve me well.
All that's left to do not is to make a big decision - to apply a scuff sheet or not...

[StillNotOut]

Sweet looking stick you have there mate. All the best with it!

[lexx]

Brilliant review,honest and i like the littke nit picking. We all do this and i noticed a few marks in the scoops in the pics as well!!! But just look at it...a very specail bat,i hope it goes well for you.

[leatherseat]

I fully understand why you fell in love with the new GN500 - you have a lovely looking bat. The silver paint works very well in the scoops. David Gower batting with one, in his nonchalant style, immediately springs to mind when I see one. I've had a few GNs over the years and they have all been belters - good pick up and great middles.

Enjoy,

David

[Seniorplayer]

Not the best ive seen but Very easy on the eyes  No concaving ? isn't scooping a form of concaving.

[ppccopener]

Nice looking bat,sure ill be corrected if im wrong but first time round(the 80's!) this was a megadrive with 4 scoops and the teo scoop one was the dynadrive

[WalkingWicket37]

Not the best ive seen but Very easy on the eyes  No concaving ? isn't scooping a form of concaving.

What I said was:
"Other than the scoops this is a full profiled bat. That may sound stupid, but looking down the spine there is no concaving at all, just scoops removed."

It's hard to explain what I meant without sounding thick! 
I suppose you're right that the scoops are a form of concaving, but it isn't concaved in in the traditional way. I didn't looking at it and thick it was a concaved bat, I thougjt it was a full profiled with funky scoops (if that makes any sense?)
What I was trying to say is that this would be a full profiled bat were the scoops not taken out. GN have taken a full profiled and reduced weight without concaving it to within an inch of it's life, and the 'middle' is definitley full with plenty of mass behind it.

That's enough waffle from me about that, whether you think it's full or not, at the end of the say it's a nice bat with plenty of wood in the right places 

[Seniorplayer]

Ah I guess what you are saying it is a convex bat with scoops.

[WalkingWicket37]

Ah I guess what you are saying it is a convex bat with scoops.

You have said perfectly in a few words what I tried to waffle on about! Thank you 

[Seniorplayer]

Hopefully Cam the bat will serve you well and you will score  many runs with it.

[tim2000s]

Nice looking bat,sure ill be corrected if im wrong but first time round(the 80's!) this was a megadrive with 4 scoops and the teo scoop one was the dynadrive

Nope, megapower was the two low scoops late eighties. The GN500 was late seventies. Twin Scoop was Dynadrive predecessor in the eighties [emoji4]


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[WalkingWicket37]

Well here's a quick update on this one.

Since purchasing the bat I have given it 2 coats of oil, done a bit of knocking in and applied 2 scuff sheets.

The bat was very well pressed and barely dented when I wacked it with the mallet. I have rounded the edges and got a bit excited smacking the face all over. It may not be an advised method but I'm now happy to take it into nets and face either old balls or a bowling machine.

Now for the two scuff sheets. Those who know me will know that I'm a bit OCD about trivial things. That includes Gray Nicolls edges stapms!
As my scuff sheet isnt wide enough to cover them fully, i actually cut a section wide enough to protect them. I marked the size of the red sticker and cut this out before applying. I then applied another lenth of scuff the normal way to protect the rest of the hitting area.
Other than the "join" it looks like a normal scuff sheet. You can only see this from certain angles anyway, and this solution will stop me worrying about the stapms being smudged. As batting is such a mental things every little helps 

[northernboy1987]

That looks a cracker, I've always wondered with the "scoop" bats, do you notice a big drop in responsiveness where the scoops are compared to what you might expect from a regular bat?

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[WalkingWicket37]

With this shape the scoops aren't that drastic, and you actually get more wood in the "middle" of the hitting area (and the rest of the bat, now I think of it) than you'd get from a concaved regular bat.

I can't speak for every scoopy bat, but tapping this one up and knocking it in my thoughts were "Jake has picked me a good'un here!" There is definitley no noticable drop in responsiveness round the scoops. It feels just as good as any other bats, concaved or full profiled, that I've knocked in recently. Now it's been lovingly prepared I can't wait to test it out now!

[northernboy1987]

With this shape the scoops aren't that drastic, and you actually get more wood in the "middle" of the hitting area (and the rest of the bat, now I think of it) than you'd get from a concaved regular bat.

I can't speak for every scoopy bat, but tapping this one up and knocking it in my thoughts were "Jake has picked me a good'un here!" There is definitley no noticable drop in responsiveness round the scoops. It feels just as good as any other bats, concaved or full profiled, that I've knocked in recently. Now it's been lovingly prepared I can't wait to test it out now!

Spot on! Just always been curious!

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