Rangemaster oddity

[spectraljulian]

I got some NPN "the rangemasters" for small bear.  The ones I got were 2sd37s. 

I was getting incredibly frustrated with the circuit, and then I found that it works perfectly fine if I bypass the gain potentiometer. 

Any idea why this is?

[LucifersTrip]

I got some NPN "the rangemasters" for small bear.  The ones I got were 2sd37s. 

I was getting incredibly frustrated with the circuit, and then I found that it works perfectly fine if I bypass the gain potentiometer. 

Any idea why this is?

The pot is bad or the pot wiring is incorrect and/or shorted or open. 

[spectraljulian]

Nope, that's not it.  I've checked them with my multimeter and still went through several potentiometers just in case. 

Circuit as a whole is acting really weird. I got it all working sans potentiometer on the breadboard and it was giving me a good boost, then I perfboarded it exactly the same way and I'm getting radio interference if I touch the transistor, and if I'm not getting any boost, in fact it cuts a little.