I'm a HUGE Matsumoku nerd. I probably could go on and on about these, but I'll try to keep it short: At some point in the late 70's Mats. started a Korean factory, and they made a bunch of their designs "over there" to kinda test out everything. That's where the "Hondo Professional" stuff came from. (I have a "Skylark" guitar, and a "HIIP" guitar, and they're 90% similar- the difference is kinda like a "Custom Shop" whatever vs. a Squier/Epi) Mats. was no different than other Japanese companies, they made stuff for whoever hired them, so one design could have 14 different brand names on it. Oh, and they made neck-thru, set-neck and bolt-on ("Bayonet mount") stuff all in the same design guitars, like the Skylark I have.