Scan of 1968/1969 Selmer guitar catalogue (printed July 1968), showing the entire range of electric and acoustic guitars distributed by the company: guitars by Hofner, Gibson, Selmer and Giannini. By comparrison, the US-built ES-335TD was only listed at $629 at this time - presumably the reason why these guitars were not economically viable in America.

The guitar pictured is advertised as having a ¥65000 list price - at 1976 exchange rates, this equated to around $600. See the more widely distributed 1982 reissue here. The Casino was not included in US price lists until 1982. This was the first of many accurate Epiphone reissues, but does not seem to have been available worldwide. Most importantly it has a set (glued in) neck, something not present on previous Japanese Epiphone models.

It is a close copy of the mid-late 1960s US-produced Casino, with chrome-plated hardware, parallelogram neck inlays and bail-style tailpiece. The Casino shown was produced for Norlin by Aria at the Matsumoku facilities in Japan. This is the first of the Epiphone reissues of 1960s instruments, and although never reissued, it also shows a 1960s Epiphone Caiola and Embassy Deluxe bass 1976 relaunch of the Epiphone Casino from Japanese music magazine Music Life.

Epiphone casino black and blue