I wonder when, how and where this connection to Tokai was derived from? What I could find out doesn't make the issue any less blurry - now this is is not exactly a conclusive line of evidence or anything, but I can't see anything pointing to Tokai either:
First off, here's another rare pic of a set-neck
Gesson neck PU cavity:
These LP copies show up in 2 versions, one with no neck plate and 4 screws in ferrules and the set-neck model shown above in this and Sigmania's post.
It seems they are all plywood though.
The pickups in the guitar pictured above remind of 70s Maxons but that doesn't seem to be the standard on those, and those brown shellac/wax/whatnot residue blobs have been around pretty long and don't point to a specific period.
Which brings up the question of "when" - apart from a Hofner violin bass copy (which never stopped to be made) the guitars do not look specifically "early 70s" or something.
Gession or Session?
1. There is no trademark registration for "Gession" in Japan, USA, UK or in the world database. Yamaha registered "Session" for guitars in Japan.
2. The folklore brings in an Australian company having distributed guitars with the "Session" name, later "Pro Session" and allegedly also a "Session Pro" series were added. Indeed, "Session" was
registered for musical instruments by "Electric Factory Pty Ltd"...in 1984.
Here's one Gession example bringing the "PRO-SESSION" moniker into the game (there are more of those, so not a TRC transplant):
Not 100% sure about
this one: The inlay is only almost same as on the "Gession" guitars but the logo changed to the one used on the "Session" Superstrats:
Said superstrats seem to end the activity of the company, leaving what could be an interesting hint: They added "by Riverhead Sound Research" to the headstock insignia.
Riverhead is one of the offspring brands of Headway/Deviser (registered 1981).
Well, it's looking pretty neat but this is not conclusive evidence that Headway/Deviser has anything to do with the guitars labeled "Gession" or if that's really just "Session" bent to look more like "Gibson".
My impression is that these guitars emerged at the earliest in Tokai's busiest and best-documented era, and OEM production by Tokai would certainly have gotten some typical Tokai features at that time. For the time being, I'm inclined to think that these are all just attempts to copy the first guy bringing in the name "Tokai" to squeeze 20 bucks more out of a plywood axe?
