small amp problems!

[Vincent Volta]

Hi evryone,
I started a small amp prject loosely based on runoff groove's Small Gem.
I use a LM386 too, and read the datasheet as they recommend but have a lot of oscillations going on when I crank the amp. The only way to stop this is taking the 10uf cap between pins 1 and 8 off, the circuit cleans up but loses a lot of volume. As a preamp I use a Distortion+ clone driving a small Fet buffer. The thing sounds great already but I think something is missing if theres so much oscillation. The level pot is a 100k, before the fet stage. Any clues? neither the page nor the datasheet  say anything about this behavior. Thanx in advance.

[RDV]

Do you have the RC filter tacked on the end like the Little Gem has? The 10 ohm resistor & .047uF to ground from the output? How big is the output cap? If you could draw up your exact circuit and post it, that would certainly help.

RDV

[Peter Snowberg]

I'm going to guess you have a problem with the power supply for the JFET stage seeing some signal fed back from the 386 stage.

One thing to try would be to swap the connections on pins 2 and 3. That will invert the polarity of the feedback and may eliminate it.

Take care,
-Peter