Voodoo Rex Review (from another forum)

For reasons that are pretty unclear to me, they hate me at Sax On the Web. Not that I care, or not that it has had any effect on our sales that I can discern. They refer to me as "Voldemart", "He who cannot be named", and "the evil one" among other things. Whenever someone dares make a favorable comment about one of my products, the moderators jump right in and remove the post. It's OK with me, it's their forum, and they make the rules. I know that far less than 1% of the saxophone players in the world read SOTW, and that the ones who drink the Kool Aide and believe every word they read there (I like to think of it as "The Saxophone Misinformation Site" are generally not old enough to shave (at least the ones I've personally met) and most of them seem to have extremely limited playing skills.

One of our new Voodoo Rex owners, Patrick Shaeffer, posted this lengthy review. As long as they leave it up, here's a link:

http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=119325

I figure they'll take it down, so here's a cut and paste of Patrick's comments, completely un-edited.

Since I know how some are enamored with anything SG related, down to what kind of boxes he uses; like kwgrinnell, I am including the intimate details I obtained possession of the box; which arrived via UPS, around 5:15 Central Standard Time on Thursday, August 20th. Once arrived at my destination I inspected the box. It was roughly 14 1/2 tall x 28 1/2 long x 8 1/2 wide & was listed as being 14 pounds. It had 5 white stickers with F R A G I L E centered on the stickers, with 4 red lightning bolt like designs extending in to the center of the stickers, on 5 of the 6 sides of the box. The stickers had on them: LABEL MADE IN REDMOND, OREGON, U.S.A. THE DE LEONE CORPORATION SCL 501. There were 4 double staples on opposite sides of the short sides of the cardboard box, for a total of 16. 3 pieces of clear packing tape were wrapped lengthways around the box. 4 pieces were wrapped widthways to just short of center of the box. 1 of the stickers was creased underneath at 2 1/2 inches from the top left side & 1 5/16ths from the bottom right side for 2 7/8th inches. None of the stickers were centered but at different angles & lengths from the sides of the box. For example, one of the stickers on the long side of the box was 3/4ths of an inch from the bottom of the box on the left & 1 7/8ths on the right, while being 3 inches from the side if the box on the left bottom & 2 3/8ths from the top left of the 4x4 sticker. The UPS Internet Shipping: Shipment Label dated 8/17/2009 was on the bottom right side of the same side as said sticker. I removed the label at 5:48 with WESTCOTT TITANIUM NON STICK scissors with blue handles with yellow striping on the interior finger area of the scissors. The label was 8 1/2 x 11 inches. The only damage to the box was an about 3 inch scrape on the long side of the bottom side which was 14 1/2 inches from 1 edge of the box & 10 3/4ths from the other end. The scrape extended about 2 2/8ths towards the center of the box on one end & 2 1/8th on the other end, where the clear packing tape had prevented the scrape from extending further. The scrape was not deep enough to affect the integrity of the box.
Next Chapter: "The Strike!," coming next.

5:57 - I began the operation. With my trusty scissors I proceeded to cut at the "crotch;" for a lack of a better word, of the waistline, towards the neckline. I delicately stuck my finger into the resulting breach & ran the hard blade up as if through buttah until I arrived at the FRAGILE area. I then reversed the process & cut from the opposite end, finally cutting through the area which offered some resistance as I forced my way through the "I L."
6:02 - Imagine my surprise when I found the inside to be pink , and white packing peanuts. I stuck my hand into the box & removed the filling, enough so that I wouldn't make a mess, and by 6:11 I had removed the black soul from the box.
The black, 2 zipper case, with 2 stiff fabric-covered handles with a Velcro/fabric handle encasing wrap, included 2 black metal loops to affix a carrying strap to. The fabric/zipper swath is 4 inches wide & runs the entire length of the front of the case, around to about 4 1/2 inches on the apex side & about 5 inches on the bottom. Not being an expert in leather versus synthetic, I won't guess what the rest of the case is made of, the rest of the case is Alto shaped instead of being a square case. The case is about 27 2/8ths long, 5 inches wide at the apex, and 12 inches wide at the bottom.
The 2 zippers were located on the left side, so I unzipped the one to the right.
6:19 - I lifted the lid, and what to my eyes did appear? A dark reddish-brown plush interior, a gold-covered mouthpiece cap with the 3 small holes in the top of it, the neck in bubble-wrap, and a folded black neck-strap located in the center of the body/bell of the sax. Realizing I had the case upside-down, I closed it & flipped it over
Next Chapter: "The Home-run," coming next.

The case included a hard plastic Saxgourmet Alto mouthpiece that is 3 7/16th inches long.
Also included is 1 1/16th inch long, gold-colored, 2-screw lig with a fancy design on 4 areas of it & LZH-1999 on it. It's not a solid metal lig, but has 8 "cut-out" areas around the interior of it.
Additionally, underneath the bell/bow of the horn was a black neck-strap that is 45 3/4th inches (41 1/2 of that being the actual strap, and the rest being the black metal clips) when stretched out & 34 1/2 inches when brought to the shortest lenghth it can be brought to for playing. The cushioned part of the strap is 6 1/2 inches long. Unlike my Neotech strap with the 1 hook, this strap has 2 hooks. 1 at each end of the strap. These have the safety clasp to keep them from coming off the hook-ring on the sax. Personally, I would probably not use this strap because the hooks are metal & the neck area is not as cushioned as my Neotech strap with it's plastic hook with safety clasp.
There are 3 indented areas of the case. 1 for the mouthpiece; an area right above where the bore of the sax is, which is 1 1/4th by 2 inches (2 1/4th deep on 1 side & 2 1/2 on the other, the neck compartment; which runs along the bore & is about 12 inches along the outer edge, 1 1/2 of an inch wide at the neck-cork area, then it runs about 9 inches down the bore before angling back towards the middle/outside of the case. The last indentuon is underneath the bell/bow of the horn: about 8 1/2 inches long, 4 inches wide, and ranges from about 1 1/2 of an inch deep near the bottom of the horn to an inch near the curve of the bell. None of these areas are covered by a "lid" of anytype to keep anything from shifting; though the mouthpiece area is snug enough that the mouthpiece will probably not move much if kept in the cover. The indentuon for the neck & mouthpiece areas extend into the upper section of the case. The mouthpiece area, for about 1 1/4th of an inch. The neck area, for about an inch.
Next Chapter: "The Horn," coming next.
6:26 - I removed the neck

...after donning my white gloves that came with the horn (I kid, I kid!!), from the bubble-wrap; usin' my trusty scissors, then removed it from the small plastic bag it came in. The leaf-like engravings run up both sides of the neck & are very nicely done. They start about 2/8ths from the bottom & run up to about 1/4th of an inch from the cork. The cork is 1 3/8ths of an inch long & is in great shape. The inside of the cork side of the neck is 7/16ths of an inch on the inside & 7/8ths on the outside. The under-neck octave mechanism is sturdy. It's an inch wide where it meets with the octave mechanism on the horn. There's a small imperfection on the left-hand side of the lip of the neck; less than an 8th of an inch long, where it fits on the sax, and when you place your finger inside the neck you can feel a small bump on the inside / opposite side of that imperfection; don't know if some tool caused this during the manufacturing process, but it's not a significant issue to me since it's so slight.
Note: The case is very sturdy, but one of those that doesn't necessarily like to stay open; having a fabric strap that runs from about the middle bottom of the case to the middle bottom of the lid, so it needs a little "assistance" to stay open & might need to be coaxed into staying open, and it has a tendancy to sometimes start tipping over on the lid side once the horn is removed, depending on what type of surface it's on.
6:33 - The 1st thing I noticed when I removed the sax from the case is that it feels like a tyrannosaurus.
Next Chapter: "The Rex," coming next.
This horn is solid!
The color is nothing like the rose-brass shiny-penny look of the Saxgourmet Tenor Six. It's a dark copper look except for the Honey-colored areas as mentioned in "The Pitch."
I removed the lyre screw since I don't plan on playing this in a pick-up marching band with a flip-chart.
On the right side of the bell is:
VOODOO REX
DESIGNED BY
STEVE GOODSON
Above that is a skull complete with a Tophat & 2 bones crossed underneath the skull.
The flower/vine-like engraving is tastefully done.
The bore interior where the neck goes is 7/8ths of an inch.
Unlike the Saxgourmet Tenor Six which has the 3 neck-strap rings as 1 complete piece affixed to the horn, the Rex has 3 separate large rings, when compared to the Saxgourmet Tenor Six.
The side F# key is large so much so that you'ld have a hard time not being able to find it when you need it. The same can be said for the mechanism for high F#.
The bell is 5 3/16ths inches wide.
The interior of the bell is about 3 1/2 to 4 inches in width & 3 3/4ths inches long.
The abalone key touches are beautiful!
6:51 - I weighed this baby Rex & it weighed in at 4 pounds; 4 1/2 with the neck.
The thumbhook is BIG.
6:55 - The key action is SOLID. No clanky-clanky with this beast; unlike the Saxgourmet Tenor Six which has a little clank action on one of the low notes.
Next Chapter: "I Blow" , coming next.

7:00 - After a little reed prep I tossed a Plasticover 2 Alto reed on my Aaron Drake Ceramic mouthpiece JAB062009 & my new Christoph Heftrig lig, greased up the neck cork, slid it on there, and easily just blew into the mouthpiece & out slid a open keys C# so surprisingly easy that I was surprised! (imagine that!! ) Certainly easier than my Selmer Ref 54, Yamaha YAS-21, or PF Flier. The playability of the horn was sweet though I had to adjust slightly to it from my other horns because of the placement of the keys being closer together for easier playing. However, I had a gig to go play which I normally only play my Tenor on. I took the Alto with me along with my wireless mic. Once there, after prepping a Rico La Voz MED SOFT Alto reed I placed it on my JodyJazz DV 9* because I wanted a different sound then what I was getting from the Drake. When I had time; like between sets, I tested the horn out in a side-room to make sure it was going to work for what I wanted to do. We started the last set with Bob Seger's "Turn The Page." The horn sounded great; having the darker sound which helps off-set the "bright" mouthpiece I use. We add more Sax than Seger has on his version & it worked out great.
Since then, I've taken the horn out more & have been amazed at how easy it is to "growl" on this compared to my other saxes. Altissimo is easy. I was surprised how easy high E-F# come out using the palm keys. However, I'll probably have to find different Altissimo Eb & above fingerings. I'm extremely happy with the horn