# Music by Genre > Orchestral, Classical, Italian, Medieval, Renaissance >  Fisoma strings

## Martin Jonas

Plamen mentioned in one of his reports from Bamberg that Lenzner is now called Fisoma. #Having just had a look at the string listings at Saitenkatalog.de, I can confirm that. #They list four types of Fisoma strings:

- Silver
- Silk and Steel
- 80/20 Bronze
- Flatwound

The peculiar thing about this is that the successor of the old "bronce" strings, which are the strings used for the Lenzner Consort set, are clearly the ones labelled "80/20 Bronze". #Anybody who has seen the Lenzner bronze strings will have seen that they are obviously phosphor bronze and not 80/20 bronze (aka brass). #The photo on the new packs also looks to have the colour of phosphor bronze, not brass. #This suggests that Lenzner/Fisoma have no idea what "80/20 bronze" means. #I wonder whether these are indeed the old strings in new packs, or whether they make them differently.

The other interesting info is that the new packs finally list gauges, which Lenzner never did before. #They offer two sets of "80/20 bronze":

- light: .009 .013 .022 .032
- medium: .010 .014 .025 .035

Finally, another curious aspect is that a quick search on the web suggests that Fisoma is not actually a new name at all, but rather a brand name used in the old GDR days.

Martin

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## Embergher

> Plamen mentioned in one of his reports from Bamberg that Lenzner is now called Fisoma. #Having just had a look at the string listings at Saitencatalog.de, I can confirm that. #...
> Finally, another curious aspect is that a quick search on the web suggests that Fisoma is not actually a new name at all, but rather a brand name used in the old GDR days.


Thanks for letting us know Martin, 

Fisoma is indeed an existing brand. I've used their violin strings more than 10 years ago. (for violin, not for mandolin of course)

I looks like we'll need to try their new mandolin strings to know what they are ...

(they could have used more professionally looking mandolins for their packages though # #)

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## vkioulaphides

Interesting... I have never tried silk-core strings on a _mandolin_, although, of course, they are commonly used on bowed strings. I would expect them to be veeeeeeery low-tension, to the point that I wonder whether they would get the top resonating. Perhaps they are meant for _particularly_ delicate instruments? I'm curious...

And yes, the cheesy demo-mandolins have GOT to go!

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## Martin Jonas

Victor: I think "silk and steel" mandolin strings actually have a steel core, wound with silk and then wound with steel. I've never tried them, but I know that GHS also make them.

Martin

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## Embergher

> Victor: I think "silk and steel" mandolin strings actually have a steel core, wound with silk and then wound with steel. #I've never tried them, but I know that GHS also make them.
> 
> Martin


That is right, they do have a steel core, then silk (but not "wound"), and then the normal windings in bronze, phosphor bronze, brass, ....
Goldfuchs (the name of Lenzner in the 1980s) produced their mandola G strings and some of the mandoloncello strings standard with silk, without mentioning it.
That is also what Hannabach does with their "bronze" (which is actually brass) mandolin set: The G and D strings are with silk ... I bet many mandolin players who use them have never even noticed this. They are excellent strings though, the sound is slightly 'rounder', but still very clear and open. 
(I don't know what Fisoma "silk and steel" strings are wound with ... certainly not steel. "Silk and steel" only refers to what is inside the strings)

There are probably quite a few different kinds of bronze.
I found these names on a few packages:
*Brass (=Messing):* This is what was used for the old Embergher strings. Also Goldfuchs used this, and today - although they name it differently - it is used by Hannabach and Optima (Maxima). The colour is darkish yellow (gold).
*Bright Bronze:* This is what is mentioned on GHS packages. I don't know exactly what it is, but the colour is bright yellow (gold).
*Phosphor Bronze:* This is used by many string factories (D'Addario, ...). I heard it is popular for guitar strings as well. The colour is like very bright copper.
*Bronze:* This is what Lenzner and others used (and probably Fisoma now). The colour is clearly less bright than phosphor bronze. 
...

Let's have a closer look ... the pictures may not show the differences in colour very well, but in real they are very obvious. 
The last package is a Goldstück mandolin set; this was the name of Goldfuchs in the 1970s. Goldstück strings were almost exactly the same as the old Embergher strings. #

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## Martin Jonas

Thanks Ralf, that's a useful comparison. For what it's worth, at least in the way that d'Addario use the term for their J62 strings, "80/20 bronze" is another name for "bright bronze", "brass" or "messing" and is golden. The old Lenzner strings are close in colour to d'Addario's phosphor bronze (J74), maybe a bit darker, and therefore very markedly different from the 80/20 bronze of the J62. The photo on the packs of Fisoma "80/20 bronze" looks to have the reddish colour of the old Lenzner bronze and doesn't look anything like a J62 string.

Martin

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## Bruce Clausen

The Hannabach polished bronze set looks interesting, but over here (Canada) I've only seen their guitar strings. What can any of you tell me about them? Also, where do you find them (they don't show up on the Saitenkatalog site or any of the normal sources I'm aware of). Many thanks for any impressions and info. BC

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## DiegoInSeneca

Brass and bronze are both metal alloys, which means they are a combination of two or more different metals. Brass is composed of copper and zinc, whereas bronze is made up of copper and tin, sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus or aluminium added in.  (Source: https://www.wandsworthelectrical.com...ss-and-bronze/)

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## Joe Bartl

I recently purchased a set of the Fisoma Consort 80/20 Bronze strings. The package had little check boxes for either a "Light" or a "Medium" gauge, and on the back of the package, the actual gauges for each was listed.  I wrote to the vendor, Lord of the Strings, (via their webpage) and asked about this, since neither check box on my package had been marked.  The vendor replied "The consort set is only made in one strength, the packaging is used for a range of other strings hence it have the medium and Light options pre printed on them." On the vendor's site, the gauges listed for this consort 80/20 Bronze set are  .010 .013 .025w .035.  This makes them equivalent to the _mittel_ set listed on the package.

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## Foster Reed

In this discussion the fact that the A strings are wound should be included…they have a different character, a rounder, deeper sound. I find that the strings last a long time, so that even though they are expensive, they outlast most others.

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## Jim Garber

> I recently purchased a set of the Fisoma Consort 80/20 Bronze strings. The package had little check boxes for either a "Light" or a "Medium" gauge, and on the back of the package, the actual gauges for each was listed.  I wrote to the vendor, Lord of the Strings, (via their webpage) and asked about this, since neither check box on my package had been marked.  The vendor replied "The consort set is only made in one strength, the packaging is used for a range of other strings hence it have the medium and Light options pre printed on them." On the vendor's site, the gauges listed for this consort 80/20 Bronze set are  .010 .013 .025w .035.  This makes them equivalent to the _mittel_ set listed on the package.


If there is a possibility of mis-labeling the gauges and you are worried about excess tension, I would have someone measure the actual strings with a micrometer.

*----> Also note: this is a 15 year old thread started in 2006.*

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## Thane Glenn

I've been trying to sort out the mystery of Fisoma F3020 strings, and this thread (though the bulk of it is quite old) has been very useful.  The F3020 strings seem to come in three versions--marked mittel (medium), marked dünn (light), and marked neither but labeled "consort."  Joe Bartl's investigation outlined above suggests that the consort version is the same as the mittel (medium) version.  I'm just wondering if anyone has been able to confirm that.  (I'm asking because I've used the consort strings and liked them, but these strings are not conveniently accessed in the states, and I've found that sometimes the most accessible seller for one reason or another has the mittel and dünn versions, but not the version marked "consort.") Thanks!

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## vic-victor

Consort strings were made according to specifications of original Embergher strings for Embergher mandolins. Named after "Het Consort", Dutch mandolin Ensemble that uses Luigi Embergher mandolins, under the direction of Alex Timmerman.

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## Jim Garber

> (I'm asking because I've used the consort strings and liked them, but these strings are not conveniently accessed in the states, and I've found that sometimes the most accessible seller for one reason or another has the mittel and dünn versions, but not the version marked "consort.")


Bernunzio has them on their site and hopefully has them in stock: https://bernunzio.com/product/lenzne...sort-qrf3020c/https://bernunzio.com/product/lenzne...sort-qrf3020c/

You could call them for further info. I probably have a few sets in my stash which I bought IIRC from SaitenKatalog a German music company. 

Personally my favorite strings for vintage bowlbacks are Dogal Calace RW92b Dolce strings. Bernunzio used to carry them but I have a feeling they might be hard to come by. I even use them on my vintage American bowlbacks and they are bright and sweet in tone.

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## Thane Glenn

Thanks, Jim, for the heads up on Bernunzio!  I have a couple of sets of the RW92b strings, and I like them quite a lot.  I like the Fisoma consort strings just a bit better on my particular instrument.

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