I’m feeling better and better about my purchase, thanks for the feedback.
It didn’t show up today but I’m not totally surprised. Shipping is pretty unreliable(slow) these days. It’s sitting about 20 miles away right now, probably waiting until Monday at this point.
Pro 3 showed up today! I haven’t had much time but I really like what I’m hearing and seeing so far!
Looks like mine might have the flickering filter light issue though 
Sent an email to Sequential. I read elsewhere that they’ll send you a new PCB to swap in. Hoping they can make that happen.
It doesn’t seem to affect anything except the light flickering so I can keep using it until I hear back.
Update, they are offering to send me the component if I’m comfortable soldering (I am).
Or they are offering to service it for $25.
Still answering a few questions but they were quick to respond. I bought it used and they aren’t treating me any different than if it were new.
I’ll post updates on my experience for future reference.
Man, what’s happening?! Udo, Pro 3 and Blue Marvin last month?
You’re on fire, my friend 
You forgot Matriarch 
Edit: and MS20 FS 
10 years of procrastination on selling unused gear finally hit it’s tipping point! These are my debt free rewards for finally cleaning out.
Still more to sell but I’m getting close to being able to use the closets in my house for something besides music gear 
I can’t even keep up with myself. I also traded my Virus TI desktop (plus extras)for a TI2 61 key.
Sequential says the problem is related to an incorrect resistor value. I’m going to look inside and see if it’s wrong. I might have a suitable replacement here at home.
I fixed the flickering filter light issue.
R472 should have been 33 ohms
It was 0 ohms instead.
I didn’t have a 33 ohm 0603 resistor.
The closest I had was a 51 ohm.
I assumed based on its location and the issue that it probably acts as a pull up/down resistor on a GPIO line for the Sharc processor.
51 ohm worked fine and the flicker is gone.
Here are some photos I took of the location.
I assumed based on its location and the issue that it probably acts as a pull up/down resistor on a GPIO line for the Sharc processor.
I love these DIY detail shares! 
People don’t realize how much easier it is to rework the bigger passive SMD packages compared with thru-hole.
Do you have the size of the resistor so that I can purchase the right one? It seems that “0603” and “33 Ohm” isn’t enough info. I don’t want to open my P3 for a while, but I’d like to have the resistor on hand when the opportunity arises.
Thought that SMD was impossible by hand. Then I bought a good soldering iron, tweezers and a bottle of flux.
Nowadays I can go till 0402 and when I have to build or fix something thru-hole, I get headaches! 
BTW @Airyck, what about warranty (if still)?
It’s 33 ohm 0603 1% tolerance.
This part number will work:
RC0603FR-0733RL
Not sure where in the world you are but just search that part number.
If you contact Sequential they will send you the resistor for free. They also offer a service to swap the resistor for $25 (I believe they cover shipping). They are sending me one, but I didn’t want to wait so I put in a 51 ohm 0603 I had on hand.
I don’t think it would affect warranty unless you went in guns blazing and just wiped out half the circuit board or something.
I finally spent some quality time with the Pro 3 tonight.
The big take away from really focusing on it for a couple of hours was gain staging can make or break this synth.
This thing has a million ways to overdrive everything. Sometimes to the point of distorting the VCA or the outputs in an undesirable way.
Having the oscillators up too loud can drive the filters without turning up the drive knob for example. Not just pre-filter, but gains will change the sound of the synth fairly easily at various locations all over the signal path.
Keeping the oscillators less than 50% and the Amp Envelope Amount knob at 50% or less is necessary most of the time. I found that the synth has so much more range and possibilities of tones when keeping those volumes down.
Also using small amounts of recursive modulation on the filter and amp envelopes really gives it a much more natural feel. The envelopes are fine as is, but you can really make them shine like this.
The massive mod matrix seems to solve almost anything I’ve not felt 100% about.
There isn’t much I can fault with this synth. A few small bugs here an there but hopefully they get ironed out. Some of the navigating is a little clunky but nothing that I can’t get used to.
Once I got the gain staging sorted, this thing sounds absolutely amazing! So much to explore! The SE is beautiful to look at and I don’t want to stop playing it. All good signs that it’s a keeper for me.
I would say that this might not be the best beginner synth. It’s not actually super forgiving with random tweaking. You have to keep in mind signal flow and gain staging or things will get out of control.
On the other hand, being able to push things really opens up a lot of sound possibilities for an experienced synth user. Especially if you can keep the signal flow and gains in mind while using it.
I’ll report back again when I get some more time with it. I’m feeling very confident in my choice to get the Pro 3 over some other options that were on the table now.
About the recursive filter modulation; aren’t the curves of the envelope customizable? So you would’nt need a mod slot for that.
No. There’s no curve adjustment as of the current firmware AFAIK. Not sure if they’ll add that or not.
There’s 32 mod slots though, not super worried 
You nailed it. That was what I found to be true as well when I owned the Pro 3. Between the mixer, filter drive, and amp envelope amount, you have a huge range of tones. And you really need to keep them all pretty low if you want ‘vintage’ tones.
OK, I got the resistors to install some time when I feel like opening the thing up. I never imagined from your pix that these resistors are the size of a pinhead. I’m not too much of a pinhead myself—I’ve done simple repairs removing and soldering components before—but I really have no idea how to install such tiny components. Can you tell me exactly how you do that? I’m guessing that it’s far better to have a skilled person do this rather than muck around with things learning for myself on a $2k piece of gear for the sake of a one-off, low priority repair. The problem is that it would be way too impractical to send my Pro-3 to the U.S. Does Sequential send the user some larger assembly that can be replaced by a non-pro more easily?
Yes that’s exactly what I found as well. Once you understand that, you can get some very nice Pro 1 type sounds and obviously magnitudes more.
I agree. It’s not very hard once you learn, but I wouldn’t learn on a Pro 3 if I were you. It’s an extremely easy swap for someone with a little experience.
Maybe but I’m sure that particular PCB would be the most expensive since it has the Microcontroller and all of the sound generating circuits on it.
Maybe contact them and see what they say?
They can at least send you instructions on proper disassembly.
Otherwise try to find a skilled person in your area. You could show them my pictures and give them the parts. The whole process took me maybe 30 minutes.
