Jeff Buckley’s Series 10 Professional “Flower” Telecaster

According to a post made over at JBCommunity forums, Jeff got this guitar as a gift after a gig played in Lyon, France in October 1994, from a guy called Jean-Marc who worked at the avenue. For the full story please refer to The Story of the “Flower” Guitar.

The guitar was apparently a cheap Korean knock-off that didn’t play too well, but it attracted Jeff’s attention anyways, mostly because of the groovy flower finish on the body. He used the guitar a few times at least, most notably during a gig played at MTV London on March 3, 1995.

The Mystery Behind the Brand

Based on the photos, it is clear that the guitar that Jeff himself used had a Series 10 brand on the headstock. However, there seem to be many different versions of this guitar, perhaps not all made by the same manufacturer.

The best info that the internet has to offer about the Series 10 brand is that it was owned by a company called Bently (sometimes also labeled Bentley – with an “e”). The company operated from Korea and was supposedly owned by an American company called St. Louis Music. It’s also not exactly clear whether Series 10 was a model name or the company rebranded from Bently to Series 10 at some point.

Next to that, occasionally one can stumble upon Flower Telecasters with the brand “Saturday Night Special Professional Guitars” printed on the headstock. These seem to be identical to Series 10 models, aside from the headstock shape. This raises the possibility of the original company rebranding a number of times, or there were simply multiple companies producing the same model.