MOTU ZBox 1-channel Passive Guitar Direct Box Reviews

Most of my acoustic guitars have piezo elements installed (most either K&K pure mini or KNA pickups) and all passive wiring in the guitar. They sound great with active external preamps, but I'm always interested in a lighter and simpler alternative, specially if I just want to plug into an amp any play without setting up more than what I need. I used this thing backwards to get the low impedance signal from the piezo element to play nice with the high impedance input of my amp and it sounds great! I plug the build in cable of the ZBox into my guitar jack and run a guitar cable from the Hi-Z jack on the ZBox into my amp. Both the K&K and KNA pickups are usable passively, and they sound alright, but having something to match the impedance helps to preserve the highs and gives a much clearer tone. My only complaint, I wish cable sticking out of it was a jack instead, but that should be easy enough to modify myself.

The Motu ZBox passive direct box works great on my Holeyboard pedalboard with My Orange Tiny Terror Stamp amp! I have also discovered Orange Amps! I love 'em! Awesome sound!!!!

Not much to say really, does what it's supposed to!

This product is a must-have in any home and pro studio. This has cleaned up my signal going into my interface. I use it with waves GTR amp plugins, and it sounds great. For not much money, you can improve your sound.

I actually bought this a few years ago.
I still use it to this day, when using Amplitube 4 and the amp simulators from EZmix2. I have it mounted to my desk.
I was reminded over the weekend what it does.
I was curious and plugged straight into the interface, without the ZBox. YUCK!
I plugged in again with the ZBox, so much better. It's more than suddle.
Definitely makes a huge difference. love Love LOVE it.
I'm glad I purchased this, and will continue to use it.
I highly recommend for those who use amp simulation plugins.

This box does what it says. It can be subtle or not depending on the guitar or bass you plugin but it does bring back lost tone and you lose the icepick sound of digital highs.

This is a must if you run your guitar straight into a tape echo . before your amp. The impedance correction is like night and day for your tone. No more mud, no loss of clarity. Try this thing anytime you experience tone sucking.. Good for correcting tonal problems with acoustic/electric guitars too.

Awesome clarity in front of an outboard tape delay before the input jack. Balanced impedance is a must.

My assigned sales rep. Matt was instrumental to my satisfaction. Thanks Matt.

Been having issues with line levels when recording directly with my guitar into my MBox. Greg Savino recommended giving this product a try. Wow, I can finally hear what Amplitude sounds like!.

Greg is a great tech to help you out with issues.

I was pretty skeptical of this thing, but I felt the price was not too high and I could always return it if it did not work, but it actually really does make a difference. I use a Sans Amp PSA1 and some regular pre-amps with DI and this thing really does add back some body and some harmonics to what I hear recorded. It really surprised me how improved the sound of the Sans Amp was too, which sounded good already.

Very happily surprised. I have bought plenty of 40 dollar wonder things in the past and almost always been lete down, but this little guy is really working out well.

i came across this box by complete accident, but having read the description and relating to the problem of thin, washed out, screechy guitar tone when recording direct i figured i'd take a chance. while the effect is subtle, it absolutely makes a difference when tracking my guitars. to compare oranges to nectarines, i have a high end peterson strobe tuner that has a setting for "rhythm guitar" that tunes perfect 4ths and 5ths. when you tune a guitar "normally", each string may be in perfect tune but the harmonic discordance generated by the "average" distance between notes is sriking when compared to perfect 4th and 5th interval tuning. the result is that the guitar just sits perfectly in a mix. the Zbox has the same type of effect in the sense that the guitars just feel warmer and more dynamic; more real. something you feel as much as hear. for the price, it's certainly worth trying for yourself.

for me it made quite a difference in my di bass guitar tone when recording. Thank You Mark Magdich!

For people that have an audio interface and want to get direct guitar sounds into their computer in order to run guitar amp emulation software all WITHOUT breaking the bank, this is for you!

Just plug this into your audio interface, plug your guitar into the hi-z or lo-z input, and you're ready to go.

It sounds great. MUCH better than putting my guitar straight into my audio interface (Motu 24 i/o). I've been using MOTU products for years and I've never been disappointed. They are a GREAT company.

At this price, you can't go wrong.

I got this for two reasons:

a. The website claim
b. The price isn't enough to scare me away

The item seems well built. It's a metal box, with nice rubber pads on the bottom to help skidding. The cable is really just the right length.

Obviously, connection isn't anything difficult. For my guitars the hiz input is the correct connection and the connections seem nice and solid. My soundcard is the profire 610 which already has good preamps/hiz connectors...but I was enticed by the claims.

So how does it sound? Well, it's really subtle, though there is a difference. To me it seems as though the mids are pushed up just a hint. Also, there seems to be an additional smoothness when playing direct now. What I don't know is if these (and I want to stress very subtle) differences are simply because there is another link in the chain, of if there really is any tech involved.

It's 40 bucks so it's not going to break the bank. Motu's website seems to claim an awful lot and it's not that dramatic. But if you are a tone geek like me and like trying different cables and such it might be a nice addition for you. (and of course, as always, sweetwater is great to work with)

I experimented quite a bit but in the end I just could not tell one iota of difference in the sound of my guitar when run through the ZBox. So, I have to give it a one star. If it had done anything at all to improve sound input I would have rated it higher. Really don't understand this product.

If you own a interface with 1M Ohm, then this will be of no use. It might have a subtle effect but you ear CANNOT tell the difference. If you DO NOT own a 1 M Ohm interface, then this will be a huge help. No bashing Motu, it will be very useful to lots of people. Just want to make people aware of it.