Holy Fire 9 Revisited
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
"9 were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power"
Seven years after the classic 48V Holy Fire debut, three years in development, one pedal came to rule them all. With the heart of the Holy Fire Classic and the power of a Grizzly. The Holy Fire 9, dubbed "The Centaur Slayer" by players who know, puts the power of a vacuum tube emulator in a 9VDC pedal.
Those mad scientists at Creation Audio Labs found a way to boost your standard 9VDC pedal power supply to pro audio, bipolar +/-18VDC, and put it inside their monster pedals. Introduced in the Funkulator and later perfected in the Grizzly Bass, their new source of power finally made the dream of a 9V Holy Fire reality.
If you are familiar with the awesome power of the Holy Fire 48V pedal, then you're already natural friends with the Holy Fire 9. If the Holy Fire pedal is new to you, then allow me to introduce you to your next best friend.
Pick it up, and this heavy metal stainless steel pedal feels like a tank in the palm of your hands. Only about 3-1/8" wide and 4-1/4" long, the pedal is smaller than you would expect and easily fits side by side with other pedals on a packed pedal board.
The laser cut logo with red backlight indicates power to the pedal. Stomp on the pedal and the main central LED lights-up red to let you know the pedal is engaged. When you play, notice how the interactive LED literally puts a fire into the name of the pedal by flashing over to yellow indicating the presence of overdrive and distortion.
Four knobs
Starting with "O" and "D" counter-clockwise, all the way off, "~" clockwise, and "G" set to about two o'clock Holy Fire 9 is absolutely clean. Something most distortion overdrive pedals simply can't do.
The "G" stands for "Gain" and acts like a master volume knob on the output of the pedal. This knob can add 12 dB of pure clean boost for solos or be turned completely off. This ability is important for unleashing the power of the "O" and "D" knobs.
The "O" knob is "Overdrive". As you turn up the "O" the signal begins to saturate like a vacuum tube. Cranking up the "O" can get pretty loud, you may turn down the "G" to match the volume of the pedal in and out.
"D" is the "Distortion" control. Turning up the "D" begins to introduce hard clipping and compression. The "G" knob’s 12dB boost is available for make-up gain to keep the volume consistent whether the pedal is in or out.
Check out how the "O" and "D" interact with your playing dynamics. This pedal makes it possible to play lightly or turn down the volume of your guitar and have the Holy Fire 9 completely clean up, the pedal seems to stand aside, even with the "O" and "D" controls maxed out. You can control the effect with your volume and picking dynamics. back-off a bit for a clean sound, or dig in a harder for more grunge. You can add a boost pedal before the Holy Fire 9 and push the pedal into another realm of heavy metal fuzz.
The last control "~" is the hi cut. All the way up is flat, then as you turn the knob down a gentle 6dB per octave high cut sweeps in. The hi cut is perfect for smoothing the hard clip of a heavy tone. This knob takes the Holy Fire tone from edgy sheen to a creamy dark feel!
Holy Fire 9 vs. Holy Fire Classic
The pedals may look like twins, but they are not identical twins. The Classic Holy Fire 48 was tweaked to take advantage of the available 48V power supply. But for all the "pros" the Holy Fire 48 had one major "con"... It needed a dedicated 48V power supply. The extra power brick was a turn-off for some people who wanted to keep their pedal boards efficient. It also blocked selling to some countries that required expensive permits to import 48V power supplies.
The Holy Fire 9 has all of the "pros" but avoids the "con" of needing a 48V brick. The pedal is fine tuned to take advantage of its pro audio headroom. The Holy Fire 9 can be set to overdrive or distort sooner, and heavier, than the 48, pushing the 9 into a creamier, vintage feel giving both pedals a place of their own.
Power
The Holy Fire 9 uses the innovative power boosting and protection circuit perfected for the Grizzly Bass. The pedal accepts standard 9VDC 250mA pedal power and steps it up to +/-18V for plenty of headroom and huge dynamic range. The pedal doesn't mind if you use tip positive, tip negative or even AC power! Whatever you plug in, 9V to 18V it all gets converted and regulated to +/-18VDC.
Wave shaping
The heart of the HF9 is an analog computer. Adjusting the "O" and "D" knobs is like changing the variables of a mathematical function that interacts with your signal and the dynamics of your performance. The analog core is programed by these controls to re-shape the guitar’s waveform into an overdriven or hard clipped sound of your choosing. Not a digital effect... the speed of light analog computer has no sampling or latency errors.
The real advantage of this wave shaping approach is very low noise. The pedal can be set completely clean, or emulated to saturate just like a vacuum tube, or turned up to achieve heavy clipping without adding a ton of noise. Listen to the noise of the pedal alone... it is almost non-existent.
Analog wave-shaping is like having a tube preamp in the signal chain, without the clunky tube. No more inconsistent tube quality from one batch to the next. No more deteriorating specs over a tube's short life span. And, if you use a solid-state amplifier, or plug directly into a sound system, the Holy Fire pedal is a great alternative to an expensive, bulky and fragile tube preamp.
To sum up
The Holy Fire 9 is a pro audio, studio quality, precision piece of equipment. Definitely not just another guitar pedal. The full range of frequencies available make the Holy Fire pedal just as potent for bass as for guitar. Built like a tank. Awesome pure tone! You won't be disappointed. If you have any questions, please leave a message below. Cheers!!!
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