Apparently one of the ground wires was unattached when my bud looked at it today, but it didn't make a difference. He said he couldn't see where to measure directly on the PU, so I guess Saturday I'll take a look with him. Being a Fender guy, he doesn't appriciate/care for the esoteric Rick wiring
I'm leaning towards "this is the way it is", but maybe I should try to bypass the .0047 mf cap just to see. I think I played a bypassed 4001 once and my impression was there wasn't any big tonal differences between the 2 PUP's with the bypass, and I've always enjoyed blending the 2 radically different sounds my 4001 has. And since I have a Laredo if I really want to rumble our chest cavities, it might not be that beneficial. We'll see.