Gated fuzz sound from loose transistor what was happening?

[Chris S]

Ok... so I had a fuzz face variant where as the note decayed it would cut out early. The transistor was a little loose in its socket and the problem was fixed by soldering the transistor in place. I've done plenty of bad soldering before where a signal would cut in and out as contact was broken but nothing like this where the connection was fine for the front part of the note but not the back. Can someone explain what was going on and why a loose connection might behave in this way? Thanks!