Excited to share the discovery of ES-930J, a very fine build in mint condition. I myself have owned dozens of Casino, Riviera, Sheraton and Emperor but ES-930J is a rare kind, and I believe the model name ending in J most likely indicates it is for Japan domestic sales only.

Interestingly, 1990 Epiphone Japan catalog introduces ES-930J as “the first” artist model, by promoting the Chicago blues guitarist Eddy Clearwater, whereas in domestic market a local band named Jitterin’ Jinn rather made the guitar popular by their frequent playing the ES-930J and Casino (photo attached for your reference).

Speaking of the family tree, ES-930J obviously inherited Casino as it equips the same P90, has no center block (there is a soundpost holding the upper body.) Its design is also modeled after ES-125 with single cutaway. Another point - neck joints at 16th fret while the same version of made in Korea has 14th fret joint. You may then ask how to prove this guitar is made in Japan? Deciphering the serial numbers, first digit 0 refers to 1990 made by Terada, second digit 8 being ES-930J (3:Rivera, 4:Sheraton, 5: Casino etc), and the last 3 digits are the production number. Korean-made Epiphone has longer digits.

Lastly, this museum quality vintage ships along with a sturdy harshell case. One thing I have to tell you – I can’t guarantee when you will come across ES-930J again. Ask yourself a question, do you really want to miss this chance.