Well like most of my reviews this one started on a whim. I hadn’t thought about buying a new mouthpeice in quite awhile. I am not an active fighter, so money spent on gear is gone, I don’t get to make that money back with my next event. But something caught my eye recently in regards to the possibility of buying a new mothpiece. I’ve ended up teaching a lot more recently and this is where my thought process started.
When I teach I talk. I don’t mean here or there, I talk the entire time. Whether it be techinques, fitness tips, encouragement, or simply advice about life, I’m damn annoying. Now for the last about 8 years I have been using a double boil and bite type mouthpeice. Before that I had one of the first models of the shock doctor. I’ve been through brain pad, wipps and even a wipps with a everlast label on it. And in the last 8 years I have not had a mouth piece related problem, expect one, I have to take it out to talk. This is fine until someone “accidently” hits you while your talking. That seems to hurt.
I was wasting more valuable time here on Sherdog(all my recent purchases can be traced back to reading something here it seems)When I noticed a new poster who was from the StarsGuards mouthpeice company. Well needless to say I didn’t know a thing about Stars Guards. So I followed the thread for awhile and posted a few simple questions. Not only did Jeff from Star Guards get back to me. But he did it in a manner that I was impressed with. His answers were to the point and even after I pointed out I wasn’t in the market he still responded with the same promptness. So I dropped the subject after awhile and went on to purchase other things, like SSF’s new Primetime clones(excellent training glove) but every time I was in the gym I thought about how nice it would be to be able to teach and not be holding my mouthpeice or without setting it on the floor. So in late Febuary I got ahold of Jeff again this time with a serious of questions on what model he thought I needed based on what I wanted to do with it. Again prompt, friendly and business like responses. He didn’t try to sell me the biggest baddest mouthpiece he had but we settled on the middle one Known as the Stars Model.
Then the question came up to what the heck I wanted this thing to look like. I am not normally what people would call flashy. And I thought I wanted to do something simple maybe even a solid color with no logos or writing of any kind. Then another thought crossed my mind. Why not do something that screamed. Something I could find in the sea that of red and blue leather that is the bottom of my gear bag. I didn’t know exactly what Jeff could design but from talking to him I could tell he liked his work and liked to use his creativity to really make his product stand out. So this is what I told him.
I wanted a mouthpeice that was so bright I could see it through a closed door and so loud I could hear it coming down the street. And I do believe that is all I told him other than his logo could appear on it. Well with a few more quick follow ups about what I considered loud, and color selection I decided to order. On a Monday I asked jeff to go head and send me my mold kit. On Friday the kit arrived. . This actually made me a little nervous. I had a dentists appiontment later that week and considered letting him do my mold. But a coward I am not (actually I couldn’t stand waiting through the weekend.) So I decided to give it a go myself.
The first recommendation about the mold kit is, take time to read and understand the directions. Then take time to try to put the mold carrier(a plastic piece that holds the putty) in your mouth repeatedly til you can do it without gagging or needing to cough. This was hard for me and I fooled around with the middle size(he sent me 3 different sizes) for about a half hour before I even broke out the putty. Well I mixed the two part dough and managed not to choke(wish I could do that in grappling class) and got what I thought was a good mold, I could see my indiviaul teeth and the flap that is in the middle where my gums met my upper lip(this I was told was important.) So I sent the completed mold back in the envolope that Jeff had sent on Monday. Friday I got notice that it had arrived and it was a “good” mold.
So now begins the next phase the wait. I knew I wouldn’t be seeing my new guard for awhile so I waited as pateintly as a kid on Christmas moring can. At a month I couldn’t wait anymore and dropped a line to Jeff. I was told that my turn was coming up shortly and that he would let me know when he got started.
A little more that a week passed and then there it was was, an email from Stars. I couldn’t stand it and skipped all my business email and opened it. Not only had he got started but he had sent pictures of what looks like a completed mouthpeice. It was loud. It was bright, It was flashy. It was exactly what I had asked for. A quick note said that it wasn’t quite done and he would let me know when he needed my money. I guess I should have mentioned it before this but the even though he sent me the kit, and a prepaid envolpe to ship it back I still hadn’t spent a dime with this man. Stars doesn’t take any payment til you accept your guard. So I shipped him a cashiers check and again waited for comfirmation on my guard being shipped. Well at the end of that week I dropped him an email asking if the check had at least got there. This time I actually didn’t hear back from him.
Which brings me to something about email. I don’t trust it with business and although he had answered everything up to this point in hours if not days, I had no way to determine if he had even received it. A buddy of mine tried to contact Jeff via email about 2 weeks prior with no luck. I got ahold of Stars for him and he was quickly responded to. My friends emails had never arrived. (these things happen, junk mail filters, and other gremlins sometimes eat emails.)so I decided to wait til Monday or Tuesday and then another emial or maybe call. A phone call which is answered by a live human gaurntees I talked to someone there. An email does not.
However my concerns were unwarranted and on Sunday night I got an email that payment was received, and my super special extra happy and loud mouth piece was shipping Monday mourning. Now how much NyQuil do I need to take to sleep til it gets here around Weds or Thurs. That was the question.
Well now for the pictures the first is one of 4 intial pics that Jeff sent me for approval.
I recieved the guard today. It fit like a glove and looked like a million bucks. Here is the guard in my mouth
and it tribute to my G&E overlord I made sure I got a pink case
I haven't actually done anything with this mouthpeice other than parade around my house looking in mirrors and tkaing th epictures that you see here. So since I have covered the purchase part of my review and the pictures part, next week I will tell you what I think of the actual function ofthe item.
So far there are only a few small gripes I have. The first being that the Stars Guards website is limited. There are no photos of completed mouthpeices, any thing showing the physical differnces between models, a secure online way to order, or base colors available. The second which is actually based more on my inability to wait more than anthing, it would be nice to get a somewhat realistic time frame for delivery when the mold is accepted.
Since Stars doesn’t take your money til the mouthpeice is done, that helps a lot in the waiting. I think I might have gone insane if he had held my money for the time it took to finish the order. I would think that he would have a reasonable idea of his ability to produce mouthpeices and should be able to predict a specific orders completion within several days. Of course we all understand that custom production can influence delivery. And to be honest with you, I don’t know If this is Jeff’s full time job or something he does on the side while being an government secert agent. In that case it may be difficult to determine how long an order would take as he must constantly flying around the globe killing off evil doers.