I asked him if they graded on looks or performance. He said they graded on their assessment of performance.
I wasn't suggesting any was wasted. Rather never got a chance to be top grade. That, of course, may be a good thing for you or I?
Their assessment of performance may well be in line with how the cricket bat industry has operated for years, i.e. assessing likely performance based on looks; as a general rule better looking willow will likely perform better.
I've experienced this industry from all angles, except behind the drawknife. I can't give the definitive piece of evidence that seems so desperately needed on this forum (but less so away from it) but am very much of the opinion that the above generally rings true.
If you were to disregard the cost, and base a choice purely on looks giving a likely indicator of how well a bat will 'go' - I would choose evenly spaced straight grains every time. Not necessarily a 'clean' face or many grains, but straight and even.
That isn't to say GM don't gauge performance in other ways, I don't know enough about their entire process even as a former retailer who has visited their factory many times. What I will say is they are the most open and honest large manufacturer I've ever dealt with. More than happy to answer any questions, showcase their entire operation to the public and are proud that they make their bats in England. The fact the owner of the business takes the time to come on the forum and answer questions and still gets cross examined like he's pulling the wool over peoples eyes is beyond me. I've never seen Richard Gray from Gray Nicolls on here, I've never even met Brett from Kookaburra and I used to live round the corner from him.
Given the above, I am not saying there aren't some fantastic bargains out there, and these GM Signatures do seem good value for money and certainly seem to perform, although i'll add a counter argument here, we had some Paragon Signatures about 3 years ago that I couldn't shift for love nor money. No idea why, they weren't bad, though perhaps not as good as the ones cropping up recently. It must be remembered that a significant skew of opinion on this forum abut the GM Signature has been the opinion of
@SOULMAN1012 Having stood at the other end of the wicket to Chris on more than one occasion, it must be said that he is likely to find the performance in all but the plankiest of bats. Whilst it is true that a good player may be able to notice the subtle differences between bats more because he is consistently marmalizing the ball out of the middle, it must be remembered that these small differences aren't of much use to mere mortals who might be better placed getting a 909 instead of an OLE and spending the rest on some coaching.
Author
Topic: GM Factory Visit (Read 41692 times)