GM of the modern bats would be up there if you look at the 909 or even sometimes an 808 would have even straight grains and sometimes 10 plus.
Overall grading of quality I agree with Soulman, absolutely Salix, don't know whether they still do but you could buy from the farm seconds, but when I say seconds I mean bats filtered out for marks, tiny dents in production etc,etc.
These would of been grade 1 and 2 easily.
I've not seen that level of perfection in manufacturing before and it's only the customer that benefits.
I'm a big fan of Salix so maybe a bit biased, TK made Newbery bats also. Back a few years Newbery only had 3 grades of wood
SPS
player
5 star.
My own view is there should only be this few grades. 1 for the best, a grade 2 next or a grade 1 maybe with imperfections,and then a 2/3 grade.
I'd love to know why now there are about 5 grades supposedly-not sure I believe it myself, I think it's just marketing blurb.