Epiphone et-275 need new tuners. Gotta problem

[ragastrums]

Hi all. First time poster. Long time lurker.

I recently bought an Epiphone ET-275. I love the vibe and feel of these guitars. I have the sunburst variety. It has all of the original parts and the lined, cardboard case.

Unfortunately "all original" includes the covered, stamped tuners. A worse set of keys I have never seen. One is tight another loose and they are all sloppy. I've worked on them and I can get them to work adequately for a moment then they loosen and are crap.

THE PROBLEM
I knew going in that I would probably need to change them so their badness isn't a surprise. What is a surprise is the thickness of the headstock. The ET-275 headstock is 0.70"/18mm thick. A Fender Stratocaster's headstock is, by comparison, 0.57"/14.3mm.

SOME PREFERENCES
I want to use a vintage style, stamped machine with a 9mm bushing. I do not want to ream the holes or counter-sink the new tuners. Any vintage-style machines I've found so far have string posts that are too short. The tuners I found, cast tuners, that work will require reaming.

I don't know what is available in locking tuners but I'd prefer something that is vintage

A FEW TUNERS' POST HEIGHTS
The Originals - 0.91"/23.2mm. I would like to find a vintage style tuner with this height.

Grover Sta-Tites - 0.85"/21.75mm. The posts on these are too short. String will feed through the post but no room to wind it.

Kluson Supreme KTS90SLN - 0.78"/19.9mm. Too short. String will not go through the post Too bad. Out of the box these are very nice. 18:1, nice plastic, translucent knobs and stamped. Lightweight.

Generic Kluson style. It's post is a little shorter than the Kluson Supreme. So... no go. Machines with safety posts have the same problem.

I do not want to ream the headstock but I can't find a tuner that has:
A) A string post at least 0.91"/23.2mm tall
B) Uses a 9mm bushing

Has anyone changed the tuners on one of these Eppies? I've seen pictures from the backside of ET-275s with replacement tuners but I've never seen a picture of these with string wound on them. I can't find a thing about problems with an extra thick stockhead on these Eppies either. I dunno.

I need some help. Any suggestions and advice you can throw my way is muchly appreciated. I'm eager to get this Epi into action!

[Sonicxyouth]

Man, I would love to help you out but my googling has turned up no new information. Really sweet guitar though, I didn't even know they existed!! Looks very similar to the Epi Wilshire, minus the batman headstock. Good luck!

[HorseyBoy]

^ You know, Wilshires/Coronets originally had 3 x 3 headstocks just like the one on the ET-275. They only switched to the batwing headstock in 1963…
As for the tuning pegs, the ET-275s were built at the Matsumoko factory in Japan, so maybe try looking to see what people use on other Matsumoko guitars from that era - brands like Aria and Vantage. I'm guessing the specs are similar.