There's a local parts store that has a fair number of tools and devices for electronics repair so I bought the smallest pair of cutters they had. Only $6 (from China) but small as they were, not small enough for this job. I intended dealing with each of the 48 pins one at a time, but since they are tiny and closely spaced, the snipping action pulled the foil away from the board. Since those traces are about half the thickness of a mosquito wing, I tried another method.
One of the videos I watched showed inserting a thin wire behind the "knees" of the pins and after applying liberal amounts of solder to maintain heat by liquidity, gently pulling the wire, disengaging the pins from the tabs. This worked well for the most part but 2 or 3 more foil traces were pulled off. I thought maybe a very small gauge wire jumping from pin to a remote solder point would work but the pins are so fragile and the between space so small, this cannot be acomplished.
So my experiment is over. I'll keep the CD transport and remove the stupidly expensive transistors I put it and dispose of what's left. I'll keep the box/remote/manual because ya never know.