Acme Audio MOTOWN D.I. WB-3

Acme Audio MOTOWN D.I. WB-3 recreates the direct box designed at Motown in the early 1960s. James Jamerson, Dennis Coffey and Bob Babbitt ran their parts through this circuit, and those parts defined how bass sounds in soul music.

Low end without magnetic saturation

Most passive direct boxes start saturating the transformer core when a bass hits them hard, and the low end turns muddy. The WB-3 transformer is built by the same company that wound the original, brought back into production after nearly thirty-five years. The result is even, open low end even with hot passive pickups.

Coloration as the point, not the flaw

The WB-3 is not transparent and was never meant to be: it adds its own recognisable coloration, which became an ingredient of the Detroit sound. A variable attenuator handles high-level sources and lets you decide how much of that character reaches the path. The enclosure is steel and considerably tougher than the aluminium boxes the originals used.

KEY FEATURES

• Recreation of the 1960s Motown direct box
• Transformer built by the original manufacturer
• No magnetic saturation in the low frequencies
• Variable attenuator for high-level sources
• The recognisable coloration heard on Motown records
• Rugged custom-made steel enclosure
• Passive design, no power required

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Type: passive direct box
• Design: recreation of the original Motown WB-3
• Transformer: original reproduction from the initial manufacturer
• Attenuation: variable, for high-level input
• Character: free of low-frequency magnetic saturation
• Enclosure: custom-made steel
• Power: not required
• Channels: 1