It could be humidity, where about are you ?
Are you doing USA extreme winter at the moment?

I would recommend that you get a book / video by a well-known guy called Dan Erlewine. I have one of his books (second link) and one of his videos (how to do strat electrics). Both are very good.


They will tell you all you need to know about setting up and looking after your axe check out:

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=SERVE&sku=5524&ITEM=catalog/sku.html

and

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=SERVE&sku=3720&ITEM=catalog/sku.html

Best of luck
S