I have done 'exactly' that..... used soldering irons to removed the components directly form the board..
and instead of soldering directly back in. I used female terminated wires to re-connect them. (no breadboard in the mix -at all-)
as for the POT.. if its only used for the volume.. and the volume seems to be correct..... whats the issue?
The cap(s) seemed to be the focus that Wawa was relaying to me (correctly) as part of the sound quality issue/correction.. (and hence the capacitance tip, if things were also in the breadboard) (they were not, never were)
I think part of the confusion came from that one board had replaceable caps and the other not, only swappable resistors (thinking that my caps were correct on both boards, and why the sound quality wasnt the same)..