I don't want to touch my preferred Strat...It's fine as is. The American Deluxe's are $1499 (Only the HSS models have the LSR) and the Beck is $1599 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StratJBOWT. It's basically the double coil Beck pickups vs. the single coil N3. I'm not a fan of the color options for the Beck model. The American Deluxe Plus here...http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StratADPMMIB looks like a nice guitar and the compound radius neck sounds like a good idea. I drove 11/2 hours to my closest Guitar Center Last weekend, but they didn't have any of these in stock and no one there knows anything about guitars.
 I'm a little disappointed that there hasn't been any Fender or Gretsch sales so far. Maybe in a week or two the good stuff will go on sale. Everywhere I read how great the EJ strat is, but since I can't play one...
 
 

like i said before, i'd build one.
much more bang for the buck.

batsbrew
like i said before, i'd build one.
much more bang for the buck.

That is an idea. Where did you get your parts? It would be the only way to get everything I would really like to have. I would like to play a 12" radius and see if I like it. Mine is a 9.5 and that's a strike against the Beck because it is too. I'm leaning towards waiting and watching and trying to get an EJ cheap. A new one is $1899 and that puts me in Gretsch territory. If I spend 2 grand it will be a Gretsch.

wow, a gretsch is nothing like a strat.
 
you might as well be talking about a wah wah versus a phaser.
or sumptin'
 
if your serious about wanting to know about a custom build,
pm me.
 

batsbrew
wow, a gretsch is nothing like a strat.

That would be the point. I've always wanted a Gretsch, don't know why, but I've always wanted one. I don't really want to spend $2700 on the one I want though...so having a different kind of Strat would be my next choice. I don't play live anymore so for recording having different sounds is a plus. If I decide to pursue the Custom build I'll get in touch. I won't waste your time until I decide for sure. I appreciate it.

When you start thinking "parts guitar", it's a pretty wide field with all kinds of options available depending on where you get the parts - from some places that basically let you build your own variation of a basic Strat or Tele, to ones (like the two below) that will route a variety of body shapes for whatever combination of PU's and other options you might desire, to other more completely custom parts builders.
 
Some here will swear by USACG, while I prefer to use Warmoth:
 
http://www.usacustomguitars.com/
 
http://www.warmoth.com/
 
There is of course some work to be done, as well as the need for tools and ability to do a proper setup involved, and lots of decisions to be made.
 
But for many of us it turns out that the greatest danger with a parts build is that the first one you complete comes out too good, leading to a rather expensive new hobby.

I wandered into Tom Lee Music store on Black Friday to see what was going cheap. The staff who seems to know me by name now ? placed this Strat in my hand and totld me to go try it out. It was a $2,800 model going for $1,400 with case. It was nice.. but. They left me alone and I had nothing else to do so I started pulling ALL the strats off the wall and playing them. I was using a Fender Blues Deluxe. Boy, the $500 models are junk.. bad necks, and terrible sounding pups. You had to spend over $1,000 to get anything I would want to own. 
There was one Custom shop that was a return so $1,000. It was real weird because it had a hard tail piece and 2 Semore Duncan pups. It had a stock 5 way swicth and even though it was set up like a Les Pual pick up wise, It still Quacked in the 2nd position. Anyhow I thought about buying it,,, I don't have that kind of money, 
So then I spotted a set of Mod Shop pups and a mother of toilet seat pick guard , this only cost me about $75. I have upgraded my custom built Strat and am now into it for $500. It is better than 90% of all those strats I played. 

 
If you have a noisy strat, these are the ticket! dead dead quiet. 

My brother has the Jeff Beck model. Plays like a dream and sounds very good. The shaved heal adds a nice touch. It has the roller nut ( yea not sure what to call that ) and the trem works very nicely. I have a squire strat in my collection and I used to own a 61 years back - and I really like my squire to tell the truth , I've had it about 20 years and it's a very solid guitar. So, the not so short story is - You have to have one in hand and know that you can do a lot to a strat to knock it into shape.

A custom build is starting to look fun. I'll be reading up a bit on this.