Thanks for the great input Lightbringer and Barkuti. I don’t know how I messed that title up and had it right in the post. Must be the solder fumes. Yeah, it’s a weird board all around.

All that’s blocked by the positive pink wire is the removed capacitor (C2). So, if I wanted to bypass the circuit I’d keep the positive wire as is (connected to U1) and move the negative wire from R3 to a different resistor? Is that correct? I’ll post a pic of it when I get home, but the body is identical to the SK68 but it’s completely silver and has no branding whatsoever. I mean, it’s so generic this circuit board doesn’t even have any identifying info printed on it.

It’s turned into a little side project/mental exercise for me now. Thank you!