"Mansfield used to have their guitar made by Hoshino-Gakki in the 70's"

There is a lot of confusion about guitars that were supposedly made by Hoshino-Gakki or Ibanez. The first thing to know is that Hoshino-Gakki never made guitars *for* Ibanez. Hoshino-Gakki *is* Ibanez, or rather Ibanez is the foremost brand of the musical instrument company Hoshino-Gakki. Also, Hoshino-Gakki never manufactured Ibanez guitars or any other guitars past the mid sixties (only drums such as Tama). They contracted other companies (Japanese initially, later on Korean, Indonesian, and Chinese) to do the manufacturing of their guitars, such as FujiGen.

So when somebody says that such-and-such a guitar was made by Ibanez or Hoshino-Gakki, they are usually mistaken. They may have been supplied by Hoshino-Gakki, but, since Hoshino-Gakki is not really an OEM supplier, it is more likely they were built by one of the companies that Hoshino-Gakki contracted to build Ibanez guitars, which other guitar companies use as well. And even then, how can you really know for sure just who built it?

Which means that the quality of these guitars has nothing to do with Ibanez. They could be awesome, they could be crap, it all depends on what the contract was for (price point, features, wood grades, hardware choices, etc.) For example, Fender has used some of the same companies to make Squier guitars - does that mean Squiers are just as good as Ibanezes?

Mind you - I am not saying Mansfields aren't any good - I've never seen nor played one. I do own a Chinese Ibanez Artcore Custom and think it's quality is outstanding. Just trying to set straight a very common urban legend about 60-70's Japanese guitars being somehow connected with Ibanez and therefore of equal quality.