Luxilon ALU Power: feelings?

[maverick1981]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Great string for control if you like swinging out on every ball.
Just dull feel for touch shots and volleys.
Solid, needs fast paced action and long fast swings.

yep, fully agree. drop shots & the like are pretty tough to judge, sometimes they feel like they grab perfect, sometimes i wonder where the ball will end up, all having to do with an uneventful response for soft touch shots.

I play a big power aggressive game, and these strings added maybe 15% more power on my shots & serve, and, more consistency. made for big ripping swings.

[Fusker]

I like the string a lot. I finally settled on a hybrid with the Alu at 55 in the mains, and N.Vy at 57 in the crosses. That's on a ProKennex ki5 (100 sq.in) and has worked great for me. I fancy myself an all-court player with more serve and volley thrown in than most. I found the racquet choice made much more difference in the touch shots than these strings as I've had them in a few different setups.

I see some dropoff on it after a couple matches... personally, not as extreme as some people cite, but certainly there. The first couple hours are magic though.

[dreamneedle]

Awesome. 10 luxilons.

[chaddles]

Still the greatest string ever made and nothing comes close to the pure playability and performance. There are always haters of the string and will say that this string and that string play better, which is total bull *****. The fact is nothing plays like Alu Power as it is the only poly ether ether product on the market.

Obviously the downside is it is a high performance string, and it does die quicker than other newer polys & is a bit more expensive than some.

[NLBwell]

Originally Posted by maverick1981

fantastic string.
#1 attribute - MORE BALLS GO IN. PERIOD. My opponents dont understand it, balls they are letting sail drop within a foot of the baseline, it takes people by surprise every single time.

Just a side note: My dad found that it doesn't do you any good if you are playing in the over-80 crowd. Many guys don't have good eyes and/or don't watch the ball well and call the balls that drop in at the last second out anyway.
(He's been playing these guys for over 40 years, they aren't intentionally making bad calls)

[rudester]

Having experimented with dozens of strings, would have to agree with other posters that there is "nothing like it", and i keep coming back to ALU power. I like it in a full bed in the mid to high 40's for tension. (18x20). When the weather turns colder i like to hybrid it with Natural Gut at about the same tension with the gut mains 3 lbs tighter. This allows for more feel as the cold weather makes strings seem stiffer.
I am currently experimenting with 4G as cross. (this for another thread) and with some promise.

[Chemist]

My son started to use it when he was 14 and he has been really happy with it for a little over two years. His coach warned us about the potential issue with tennis elbow. But he was ok. I string 10% lower tensions, 55 main and 51 cross. Alu Power allows him to hit the ball hard with lots of spin for control. It works well for slices and volleys too. Drop shots and drop volleys seem to be tough to control, however. My son would break the main after 3-4 hours of hard hitting on hard court. In some close matches, he would switch racket before string break as he knows he is missing shots. The string only lasts about 2-3 hours on clay.

[maverick1981]

Originally Posted by NLBwell

Just a side note: My dad found that it doesn't do you any good if you are playing in the over-80 crowd. Many guys don't have good eyes and/or don't watch the ball well and call the balls that drop in at the last second out anyway.
(He's been playing these guys for over 40 years, they aren't intentionally making bad calls)

that is surely to be a problem...they anticipate an out call & stop watching the line.

[Blitzball]

Luxilon Alu Power isn't far and away the best polyester string, but I will make the claim that it is the best. I like it more than RPM Blast, Volkl Cyclone, and Solinco TB just because it's a little more crisp and solid from my experience. It's a small margin ahead of the others, but the point is there's a margin, and thus the strings rule. And I've been talking about having them in a full-bed; in a hybrid, they're even better. I remember crossing them with natural gut once (one of the three times I've done it, because of how freaking expensive nat. gut is) and my game improved and so did feel.

[J011yroger]

The gold standard for poly strings.

J

[2Hare]

If you ask different players with different racket, they will give you different answers. The answer really depends on your racket and play style. Usually a more control oriented racket would play better with Gut/Alu setup. While a higher power modern racket would play better with full Alu, or perhaps softer polys. If you are not sure, try full Alu. If you have problem with its tension mentainence, switch to gut/alu, as that would last much longer in playability.

[stewfoo412]

just go full set. you won't regret it.

[tennisplayer1993]

i once used lux alu power strings on my coach's pure drive team plus. the power was unreal but the feel/comfort level was pretty bad.