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Restringing my 65 L-series Bass VI, and the button on the D tuner broke and now spins freely.

This is a players instrument and has had parts changed over the years. Sometime in the late 70’s/early 80s, the Kluson in line tuners were replaced with Fender F cover tuners. Different hole pattern. Both sets of holes can be seen on the neck. I’ve had the guitar since the late 80’s.

So where can I get a replacement? If I have to change the whole set back to Kluson style, that’s ok, but I can’t seem to find any replacements. Of course, the string channels are larger than they would be for regular guitar tuners.

Please?

Bass VI strings fit in my AVRI Jazzmasters tuners, those are klusons, at least the set of slinky strings I got did. So standard klusons may do you just fine.

Edit: are they klusons on the AVRI? I really should know this since I play it daily.

yes they fit, I used that type when I built my bass VI some years back... but the shaft diameter is dramatically smaller than the tuners made for Bass VIs

I cannot help, but in regards to your last post, the diameter is different, but do the strings fit? Does it affect anything?

Yeah the strings can be strung with no issues.

You would most likely have finer tuning and a slight increase in the risk of string breakage at the tuning posts. String life should still be plenty good, I played the Bass VI set on my Jazzmaster for around a year and that set was still going strong when I switched back to guitar strings. The finer tuning most do not really notice and few that do are bothered by it.

I’m still tuning that string with a pair of vise-grip pliers

at least with vice grips you can leave it on the headstock like a tuner when you play live

Buy a single vintage "F" tuner. The mechanism can be stuffed under your existing cover if the amount of wear is different. There were a couple F tuner variants over the years, you can look for ones that match if you have a good eye. If they drilled the posts out for yours larger, you could move the replacement to the high string and move the other down in line.