Upgrading from cheap open geared tuners to metal closed geared tuners? tips?

The title says it all.

I have an ashbury au40 soprano that comes with those cheap geared tuners with black plastic knobs and open gears. Do you have any suggestions for when I do upgrade?

Look and see if the mounting plate holes are in opposing corners or at top and bottom, parallel with the tuning shaft as in a Grover. May be an issue with plugging the old holes that won't match up with new tuners.

Sealed tuners need to have a much larger hole because they have a bolt that surrounds the shaft. Drilling out the holes and making sure there is enough room everywhere can be dummied out using CAD - cardboard aided design. Cut out some thich cardboard to match the existing headstock and try it out first. A simpler alternative may be to upgrade to better quality open tuners,, or get crafty and carve some wooden knobs for the existing tuners.

Both grover and Gotoh offer quality sealed uke tuners at an affordable price. I much prefer the open geared model of either brand because they are much lighter.

I was going to add that the sealed tuners are much heavier, and anything smaller than a tenor might suffer from the head being too heavy and making it less comfortable to play as you are having to hold the neck up more. I would also recommend upgrading to a better quality of open geared tuners. Besides, I feel they look better on a fold instrument than the sealed ones do. Just my opinion though.

Dan