I hate getting rid of any bass, but I think it's easier when you have some overlap in sound - like Ray's Orville and late-model Gibson Tbirds probably have. If I ever have to dump something, it will be the basses that cover a wider range of tones - like the Magnum and AEB-1. While the bases themselves are special to me, their sound honestly isn't - not as much as some, anyway. I could get those sounds on other basses (or close enough, anyway).
I love my 68/69 EB-3 for live playing. I use it a lot in a classic rock outfit, and it gets that nice dirty, punchy Andy-Fraser-ish tone on varitone position-3 thru the Orange+SVT stack. Position-1 works great too, but I have to EQ it, notching out the sub-lows to really be effective (at least with my 10" SVT drivers), or distort the heck out of it - which can be quite a breathtaking experience. The EB-0 (same year) works pretty good live for that matter, but I tend to like having the bridge pickup (on these basses) in live settings. Just my taste - adds a bit more bite. I think the EB-0 might be my favorite home recording bass, though. I just love the deep, rich tone that it gets.
Honestly - I don't think you could go wrong trying an old EB-3 on. The late model bird is easy to replace, and the old EB-3 would be easy to sell if things don't gel. With basses, I kind of like changing it up - going from long to short to mid to Ric scale. They're all fun in their own ways, and inspire different types of playing. Keeps me entertained.
