I have a 4900 and 3880. Like you, a 3800 before. I love the 3880, and I use it far more than the other. I've never had a clogging issue with the 3880 but the 4900 is just the opposite. The 3880 is an awesome printer.
Yup, I totally agree that the 3880 has very few clogs and is easy to clear when they do happen. But mine dribbles random ink on the paper at a horrific frequency. On my particular unit, about 1 in 5 prints is a reject due to a magenta blob, cyan blob, or black blob on the paper somewhere. Usually about 0.5 to 1 mm in diameter. Typically about an inch from the edge of the media on either left or right side. Setting platten wider on the off chance the ink excess is on the head and might stay there with a wider gap didn't help. Parking the head at the capping station by turning off and then on and/or running a heavy cleaning cycle will get me a few dribble-free prints but the problem soon returns. And test samples I have received from other Aardenburg members indicate I'm not alone with this problem.
The problem was there from day one on my unit, but I was too slow to recognize that it would be a chronic problem since I wasn't printing with the 3880 all that much in the first year I owned it. I'd like to now start using it more, but I'm now out of warranty with a printer that was little used and is basically a paper weight in my studio. I won't risk expensive high quality papers to this absurd reject rate.
My advice to new 3880 buyers would be to run a couple of dozen prints right in a row while it's still in warranty and count your rejects. If you got one like mine, maybe Epson will repair/replace.
mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com