While it is normal for your amp to get warm with playing, there are some unusual instances in which an amp gets hot to the touch and then cuts out or shut down.
When this occurs, it means your amp's internal thermal protection is kicking in. If your amp gets hot for any reason, it will automatically shut down in order to cool itself off.
That being said, this should not be a common or recurring issue for your amp. The question is, what's causing your amp to overheat?
Overheating can be caused by a handful of different things such as your environment, or external equipment among other things. If you begin to encounter this issue, here's how to go about troubleshooting it and why:
1) CHECK YOUR CABINET: If you're running your amp through a cabinet with multiple speakers and you experience this issue, there is a possibility that one of the speakers in your cabinet has died. When a speaker dies, it will cause the impedance of the amp to change and provide a different load to your amp which may be causing the heating. To check if this is the case, run the amp with identical settings with a different speaker/cabinet and see if the issue persists.
2) USE THE APPROPRIATE AMPLIFIER SPEAKER JACK(S): Many Quilter amplifiers are equipped with two speaker jacks to support different load impedances, each marked with the impedance it is intended for. If you connect a single 8-ohm speaker load to a 4-ohm jack, the output power will double. While this might seem like a benefit, it's crucial to recognize that the amplifier will experience twice the strain, which could lead to overheating. Continuous overloading may result in the amplifier shutting down or the speaker failing due to being overpowered. When using 16-ohm cabinets, you should utilize the 8-ohm jack and turn down the master volume to prevent overloading (more info on this can be found here). For two 8-ohm cabinets, use both jacks to distribute the output evenly between the cabinets.
3) CHECK YOUR CABLES: It's important to note that our amps should only be connected to speakers/cabinets with a speaker cable and NOT an instrument cable. Connecting the amp with an instrument cable can cause it misbehave and overheat. If you are doing this, swap your cable with a speaker cable.
4) CHECK YOUR INSTRUMENT AND PEDALS: It is entirely possible that something in your rig may be sending a hot signal to your amp and making it overheat. If you play with any sort of pedals, or even a guitar with high-gain pickups, try running your amp without pedals plugged into the FX Loop or the input of the amp and try a different instrument too. Additionally, try running the amp without anything (instrument, pedals, etc.) plugged in and see if the issue persists.
5) TEST YOUR AMP IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT: Playing your amp in a warmer environment like a humid basement or a hot, sunny outdoor gig can cause the amp to heat up quicker than usual. Try running it in a different location and see if the issue persists. If this is what's causing it, the next time you have to play in a warm location, try running a fan next to your amp to help cool it down.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It's important to know the difference between a "warm" amp and a "hot" amp. As mentioned, it is normal for an amp to get warm while playing and should only be comfortably warm (about body temperature). If this happens, there should be no concern. However, if the amp has gotten hot enough to make it uncomfortable to touch, this would confirm a problem causing excessive temperature rise, which is when troubleshooting should start.
PLEASE make sure that you've thoroughly done all troubleshooting before contacting us or any of our authorized service centers if you suspect there is an issue with your amp. Most, if not all amps we've received back from customers experiencing this problem wound up having no issue at all and performed perfectly normal.