3alarmer 

.
....the whole Italian thing gets overblown at times, but most (maybe all) the Italian small producer frames I've had from the later 70's, 80's, and even into the early 90's have felt roughly equivalent to me in terms of how they feel and handle.

You can spot the geometry you want once you've looked at enough of them.

You can even find some under the radar bikes that were built in a similar vein, like Palo Alto's and the old Windsor Pro's.


I don't think that any of them will feel better to you that that Faggin, but some will feel a little "quicker", some more solid. It's knd of a taste thing, and there are plenty of options at that price point on my local CL if you're willing to do some maintenance and replacement of consumables.

If you were happy on a tres tubi Faggin, and less happy on that SLX frame, you probably ought to either go with Columbus SL, or Reynolds 531, or maybe look at some of the OS tubing frames in the later 80's, early 90's period, right before steel got less popular.