Meridian compressor and Exciter pot

[matopotato]

I just finished building a Meridian Compressor. I fiorst thought of making a Bass and Guitar combo with some switches, but after testing it I will stick to the guitar version.
https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/meridian_documentation.pdf
I applied the Sustain mod as described on page 6.
I also swapped Q1 and Q6 2N5088's for recommended MPSA18 as per a review at Das Musikding (https://www.musikding.de/Meridian-kit First Rating), but not the other suggestions there.
I seems to work as expected except for the Exciter pot. I am not 100% sure what it should do, but in the extremes it turns off the sound. So in essence the useful part is from 9/9:30 over to 2:30/3. Is that to be expected, or is there some obvious reason this could happen?
I have checked for continuity between each soldered leg and its next point(s) in the schematic (see first URL).

[matopotato]

Sorry, forgot to add...
I measured the Exciter pot B25k in its context, with not signal or power on, just the resistance, and it seemed a bit strange to me that the sum of pin 1-2 and pin 2-3 do not add up the same. This could be nothing and just normal, but might as well post the values since I took them:

Exciter B25k pot in kOhm
pins 1-2    pins 2-3
0 (CCW)    11
1              11,3
2              11,3
3              11,3
4              11,3
5              11,3
6              11
7              10,7
8              10,2
9              9,5
10            8,5
11            6,4
11,5 (max) 1,77
11,05 (CW) 0

I should mention that I had the pots on "stilts" (cutofflegs) on the component side, so the pins are wrong compared with the schematics. For the Lin pots I figured this would not have any impact other than the turning is opposite to the final build. (But of course I could be wrong...)

[matopotato]

I now also tested the pot onnits own and it checks out with 25kOhm in sum in several different settings, so it ought to be some other issue.

[matopotato]

Since the Exciter pot is close to IC3 and IC4 in the schematics and you also have the IC2 all being 4558s, why not try and swap them around, if the problem moves around then three might be somethings there?

[matopotato]

Thanks, great tip. Wish I had come up with that myself.
I did swap 2 and 4, no change.
Then 3 and 4 (formerly known as 2), and lo and behold, problem gone!

I guess I just hadn't pushed IC3 firmly enough into the socket. Silly thing probably and I can't see how a "not so tightly put" pin would have that effect on a pot like that.
But problem solved, lesson learned, happy builder.