I have tested 4 different guitars with passive pickups (I made sure not to use active pickups so someone doesn't just say the signal is too hot for the audiobox) with 2 different USB96. One USB96 was brand new and received only a few days ago and the other is a few years old. I have also switched out to two different computers both running Studio One 5 Professional. When recording a guitar directly into the input and the input knob all the way turned down to 0, the guitar clipped in every scenario with all 4 guitars and both interfaces on both computers.
So I'm assuming the USB96 is not able to record directly in. It seems a DI box is the only solution. Is that correct or is there some simple button in Studio One that i'm missing? Or is this also a line level issue where the USB96 doesn't have a hi-z input?
For other knowledge, I also use a Presonus 1818VSL and connected via USB to the computer and plugging directly in with the same passive guitars on both computers allows me to have a much better control of the input levels using the knobs.