HEADHUNTER 555

The HEADHUNTER HH-555 was a very unique take on a Gibson ES-335 styled semi-hollow electric guitar. It is a beautiful quality instrument with some distinctive features - noticeably the negative bottom that we’ve also seen in the ‘81 Series. The guitar has an arched maple top, sides and back with a wood core center block that Daion describes as adding tone and sustain and is constructed of “a dense layer of maple sandwiched between two thick, softer layers of solid spruce. Ten ‘sound grooves’ are routed at either end of the blocks to add resonance.”

The electronics are the same as the POWER Series - two “Power Pulse” humbuckers with triple screw anti-tilt, two volume, two tone, coil splitter mini-toggles, and a three-way pickup selector. The hardware is also similar to the POWER Series. There are gold plated tuners, brass nut, and brass saddles nestled in a gold plated bridge with side screws to lock everything in place. The neck is mahogany with 22 frets that joins the body at the 19th fret. The fretboard is rosewood and features brass ring inlays as fret position markers (also seen on The YEAR ‘79 acoustic).

The HH-555 was available in five finishes - Brown, Burgundy, Tobacco Sunburst, Honey Sunburst, and Gold. In some price lists Gold is listed as a special order color (a $50 option in May 1982).

HEADHUNTER 505

The HH-505 was not listed or advertised in any catalog that we can find. It appears to be an entry level HH-555. Like the BIT Series, it probably was offered in limited markets. The examples we’ve been able to source have come from Japan and Australia. Though it has the negative bottom like the HH-555, overall the construction seems to be simpler (and less expensive). For example the back is constructed of a single piece of wood rather than the split book-matched back seen on the HH-555, and the HH-505 has simple binding compared to the HH-555.

The electronics appear to be the same as the HH-555 but the volume and tone controls have plastic knobs (as seen on a Mark X or Savage Series) rather than the black chrome metal knobs of the HH-555. The HH-505 has chrome hardware rather than gold (similar to how the Mark X uses chrome and the Mark XX uses gold plated hardware). The coil split mini-toggles are chrome rather than black as on the HH-505, and the pickup selector switch cap is plastic rather than machined metal (as found on the HH-555). Continuing with the chrome theme, the truss rod cover is chrome rather than gold plated.

The nut is brass (as with the HH-555). The HH-505 has traditional pearl colored dot fret position markers rather than the brass rings of the HH-555. Lastly the tuners have plastic colored buttons rather than metal. The two finish colors that we have seen thus far are a Brown and Tobacco Sunburst.

An interesting observation, but on the HH-555 the label has the signature if its designer - Hirotsugu Teradaira. There is no signature on the label of the HH-505 and there is no “H” listed at the end of the serial number as on the HH-555 model.

One last thing to note is how close the serial numbers are on the examples we have been able to find - 8211, 8212, and 8215. We suspect these were a very limited run (much rarer than the HH-555).