Joel :
Try putting a .01 uF cap in series with a 1.8K Ohm resistor between pins 1 & 5 of the LM386 on your "Slop Bucket".
That should get rid of most of the high frequency hiss on the LM386 without impacting SSB reception.
This is a N6KR (Wayne Burdick) trick; a little used feature of the LM386 called BASS Boost.
The values I specified are those that are used in Norcal 40a.
I made the same mod to my BITX40 and it works great on both SSB and CW.
Cheers
Michael VE3WMB?