It could be a bad cap that is intermittantly allowing DC past itself into a following stage, which causes that following stage's bias to be incorrect. The cap can be troubleshot, or it can be replaced. The hard part is finding just which cap could be causing the problem.
It could also be a very high frequency oscillation that is causing the amp to appear to shutdown when in reality it isn't. It is just expencing so much power trying to amplify inaudible frequencies that there is nothing left for the frequencies you and I can hear. This could be due to many things like bad grounds, wire location inside the amp, etc. It needs to be troubleshot to determine if this is the cause or not, and if so how to fix it.
It could also be a malfunctioning volume pot. Replace it with a new one and see if it still has the same problem. Also make sure the ground on the volume pot has a good connection without any corrosion.
Greg