WARNING: Lance Burton At MartinMods Will Not Finish Or Return Our Saxophones

Re: MartinMods - The Martin Baritone Mouthpiece Matching

You are certainly welcome to start a thread dedicated to how long a complete vintage to Mk6 horn conversion should take at under $800

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always the same excuse!
why do you make for the customers such quotation then?
Ask the price you find right and make the horn finished without missing parts for example.

Also another bad practice is to tell customers the horn is finished!! just needing alignment and polishing and then telling 2 weeks later... Opss. I can't find parts of the horn!![rolleyes]

But was the horn not finished as told??

your practice Lance brought me a lost of at least 2.500 U$, just for your information buddy.

And why so much money? it was the amount I spent buying the horn (1,100U$) in fantastic condition. I let it be overhauled in Germany, made some mods.
Later I sent it to you paying in advance for mods, paid the shipping to USA and everything.

When did it all happen?

August 2009.

We are now by??? March 2011.

Where is the horn?
Who knows!!

So don't tell any longer stories. I should have my beloved horn by me here in Uganda right now, making the native people and myself happy here.

It's a thread of mouthpieces but we will not give you rest until you send back the proprietary of serious people out there.

By the way..

the transformation of my former Chu Berry pinky table to a Mk 6 style began in September 2009 , the same time I got the first pics from you. it means 18 months by now.

Send the proprietary back man, come on.
Did you manage to find new parts to replace the nice original ones you lost?:soapbox:

I told you to not disappoint the new owner of the horn... EricM but you are playing with him now the same game.

Re: Martin Mods/Lance Burton.

I sent my horn to Lance near the end of September 2009. When we talked, he wanted a 10M to put on his site so he said he could do his conversion for $500 and that he would need six weeks. In the meantime, Lance moved with my horn from Florida to Washington which I had no idea of. Every time I asked about the horn, it was another excuse from his personal life. He has told me that he is trying very hard to get by financially, so I have offered to pay more to get this over with. To be fair, Lance never accepted more money. However, I was leaving my job in the Canadian army band to apprentice with Ted Klum and needed a tenor to test out horns and just to play on (I sold my dear Selmer Balanced Action to pay down my line of credit before my move to the US) and actually had to borrow money to buy an inexpensive Chu here on the Forum ....
I have asked several times to have my horn sent back as is ... I didn't care how far it was, send my parts and horn back and I will find a way for someone else to put it together. I asked to forget about the conversion, as I understood there were pads already (??? don't know haven't seen a picture in forever) and the conical neck tenon was done I think, that leaves the LH conversion and the hole where the F# key was supposed to be removed and repositioned.
Why haven't I gotten my horn back?

After lots of thought on this, I now believe this warning needs to go out. Lance Burton at MartinMods appears to be taking in saxophones and collecting payments for modifications, and then never finishing the saxophones nor returning them to their owners.

In mid 2009, Lance and I were having an online conversation here on SOTW about my 1937 Conn 12M bari with rolled tone holes. The sax had lots of issues and Lance began to describe several processes he could do to bring this instrument back to its former glory. Overtime, we developed a scope of work and a completion date of December 2009. All this was put in writing via emails.

Sometime before the December deadline, Lance reported that he had completely disassembles my sax but then ran into trouble with the tone holes. I then bought and sent him some brass rod stock he wanted and continue to make monthly payments toward the $900 price we had agree to. We also discussed having a custom engraving added to the instrument. And I told him that taking a few more months would not be a problem and he sent some photos of the new tone holes he was making from the brass stock. This was the last indication I had that Lance has done anything with my sax or even that he still has it. That was one and a half years ago.

After the delay of his move to Washington State, I have repeatedly emailed him for updates on my sax. He usually responds with description of some new process he is working on. But he rarely talks about my sax. During our original agreement, he said he would send me photo updates of the work. But the only photos I receive are of other work not related to my saxophone. I have repeatedly asked him for a new completion date and photos. But I never receive them.

It grieves my heart to say this, but I now believe Lance has taken my vintage 12M Conn, my new contoured bari case worth about $250, and approximately $800 of my money with no intention of returning my sax. I gave him one last chance to respond to these charges, but he hasn't responded.

From his online postings, I like Lance and his innovative approach to saxophone work and modifications. But based on my experience and the experiences of other members of this forum, I truly believe something is very wrong. And I would highly recommend that you avoid any business dealings with him at this time.

I invite others with similar experiences to post below. And I invite Lance to defend himself and explain (at least for once) what is going on and why he will not finish and return our saxophones.