With all the guitars.
(Playing only bridge pickups)
All pickups are passive even on basses i use passive mode only
I have ibanez rgr 652 stock DiMarzio Fusion Edge pickups. Height 2.5mm on bridge pick up. Strings 10-52
Ibanez rgrtbb21 stock Dimarzio Dactivotor pickups. Height 3mm on the bridge pickups. Strings 10-52
Basses - Dingwall combustion and Ibanez BTB 805MS. On the basses height 5mm to bridge pick up.
Unfortunately i don't have anybody who has RME in my area.
I had before RME 4 different interfaces from other brands and none of them were clipping with exactly the same guitars
I am not new in guitar world. I know very well how to set up guitar. I know what height should be on the bridge pick up etc.
It's not a guitar related problem 100%.
Might be missing something in settings of Rme or somewhere else.
I turn on and off all the buttons in Total mix (+13 dbu +19dbu etc) re-installed drivers and Firmware few times, nothing help.
I've met on the forums some people have same problems and as i understood they didn't solve the problem. They just start using DI boxes. But i hate DI boxes they all sound bad. I bought RME for direct recording.

For a test : Total Reset in Totalmix, menu Options, Reset mix, Total Reset.
Then connect the guitar at the backside to an analog line input socket.
How much signal does it receive ?

Yeah i've read that topic.
I did full reset now and took a screenshot of an input level signal

https://ibb.co/TMC2W1B

I think my pickups somewhere in the middle. It's not so hot and not a low output pickups.
But it was ok with other interfaces ( i've had a lot of them)
And if i want to use a DI box i just wouldn't buy RME. I could use any other interfaces.
But i would like to record straight in. This is why i bought RME.
I know it has one of the best AD/DA converters and it's very transparent in sound.
DI box will color and thinning out the sound.
I'vs tested a lot of DI boxes too.

It's line input on the screen shot. It's not an instrument input. I mean in first screenshots

This is an instrument input screenshot

https://ibb.co/6Br7BqY

https://ibb.co/0K1knL6

https://ibb.co/3SV4L2f

Exactly, hence my comment on waedi's suggestion to use a normal analogue input, that's useless, a completely unnecessary test. You would need something like a DI-Box to bring the signal to line level. I personally try to avoid this, as DI-boxes can become expensive and then you have another device there claiming "precious" space and more cabling etc.

I would also prefer, like you, to be able to use the Instr input.

When I am strumming heavily as hard as I can, both PUs enabled, then I get -4,8 lets say -5 dB peak and -15 db RMS when using a gain of -20 as I mentioned. Gain range is 8-50.

Not 100% sure but in your screenshot the RMS level seems to be on the 3rd marker below 0 dBFS.
This might be -10 dBFS RMS level at your lowest gain level.

So when comparing my levels with your levels.
Gain range is 8...50 for my instr input.
My RMS is -15, 5 dB lower than yours but I could still reduce my Gain from 20 to 8, which is 12dB difference.

5 + 12 = 17 dB ...

Compared to UFX III and my guitar it looks to me, that the sensitivity of the UCX II Instr inputs is around 15-17 dB too high for your passive pickup with higher volume (if I calculated / estimated it correctly).

Maybe the previous settings were correct for you. It would be interesting to know how much more sensitive the Inst have been made by RME after the discussion in the above-mentioned thread.

i've also tried to install some old drivers and Firmware but failed.

I did. Two times. Couple weeks ago. They didn't reply.

Please don't start rumours about changes of the overall sensitivity - that is not the case. Only the max amplification aka gain has been increased from 12 to 24 dB, to address users with very low signal guitars.

Extreme pickers exist. One has to understand that then the peak output level of the guitar indeed exceeds +13 dBu, the max input level of the UCX II when set to +19 dBu with Inst active and gain at 0.

You can get 6 dB more headroom (full +19 dBu) by using the rear inputs and following the advice from older manuals:

The Line inputs can also be used as instrument inputs. Active instruments can be connected directly and be level-adjusted perfectly with the Gain pots. Passive e-guitars require an additional impedance buffer. Most guitarists have one, but don't know that they do. Modern floor effects devices are active even in bypass mode, and then operate as impedance buffer.

That's the onyl solution other than a DI-box. No RME interface has Inst inputs that go higher than +13 dBu.
Edit: Statement corrected in post 24:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 14#p213014

Starting rumours was not the intention. Just troubleshooting and attempts to explain why he is experiencing such high levels and overall clipping with passive pickups.

How about reintroducing the old passage from the manuals into the current ones? That way, users would know that instrument inputs also have their limitations and how to solve this using the rear analogue inputs in combination with a buffer. This would have been very helpful here. I wouldn't have expected that even a passive humbucker could deliver too high of an input signal for the instrument input.

I haven't had such problems so far because I use pickups with moderate output power. The Gibson 59 Classic pickups are simply great, fortunately you don't have any of these issues with those.

However, there are many guitarists who work with hotter pickups.

I just checked a couple of products out of interest because I own them. UFX III, XTC, 12Mic support input levels up to +21 dBu. I am not certain whether this would help in his case, but 8 dBu more would give at least some more headroom.

Octamic XTC's four inst inputs: +21 dBu
UFX III four inst inputs: +21 dBu
12Mic four inst inputs: +20 dBu