Thanks for that well-considered response. It was extremely helpful!

I have decided to get the ash body, maple neck, ebony fretboard setup with the grover tuners -- I would probably have bought them later anyway, so I might as well take advantage of the good price. Whatever else happens, quality tuners make life easier, and I'll always have the ability to reuse them in another build if it comes to that.

I will take your advice regarding other upgrades. I'm not going to worry about pup/bridge upgrades at this point, as I simply need to learn how to build the thing first! Once it is built, I may get some SD humbuckers in there!

Thanks again for your help!