Bassperts - Recommend Me Some Tuners

[velorush]

My recent gear purge left me a little shell shocked in that I'm sitting at my desk a couple of weeks ago, looked around and realized I still had a bass left.  Yes, I'd forgotten about my PBass.  Maybe the second best playing guitar in the house, it weighs in at 9.5 lbs., but I'm telling ya, at least two pounds (hyperbole, but not by much) is on the headstock in the form of these:

The bass has 11/16" holes in the headstock.  As best I can determine, there are no replacements for these that do not involve drilling a hole in the headstock.  My question is: am I right?  Will I have to drill the headstock to replace the tuners?  Gotoh and Hipshot are the only two brands I have investigated. Gotoh doesn't seem to make a lightweight tuner for 11/16" headstock holes, so I think I'm limited to Hipshot.  Hipshot Ultralights have a single retaining screw. On a bass like mine, the end result looks like this (from a TalkBass post):

Not in love with that... but I suppose I could get over it if there were no other choice.

On the bright side, I have read numerous accounts of changing to either Gotoh or Hipshot lightweight tuners saving an actual half-pound from the headstock.  That would be groovy!

[velorush]

Just found these Gotoh's (GB640) made for more vintage Fender Basses (11/16 headstock hole).  It would appear the plate would cover the existing (location pin) holes, I'd just be drilling four holes per tuner:

These weigh in at 62 grams each, compared to the Hipshots at 57 grams each a difference of 0.7 ounce for the set, so negligible, especially compared to the OEM machines.

The Gotohs are 28:1, whereas the Hipshots are 20:1.

[unfun75]

I'd go for those Gotohs. I like their appearance, too. 28:1, holy crap! You should be able to fine tune.

Are you worried about the bass not balancing on the strap after the drastic weight loss? It would be the opposite of neck dive.

[velorush]

2 hours ago, unfun75 said:

Are you worried about the bass not balancing on the strap after the drastic weight loss? It would be the opposite of neck dive.

I've never encountered that as being a problem.  This bass isn't terribly neck heavy. With a 3" strap it's barely noticeable, but it would be great to relieve another half pound (given my frame size) and curing what little neck heaviness it has would be an added bonus.

[JohnnyB]

Hipshot, probably OEM for G&L's Ultralite. Good tuners worth a phone call to make sure of the diameter.

Still has the 4 small screw holes. Probably stuck with that.