For a custom steel frames around that price range, Albert Eisentraut and Russ Denny come to my mind. I love my aluminum Denny, but he first started building steel frames under thge ledgendary Dave Moulton (look up "Dave Moulton" under a username on this site). My Easton Superlight frame is under 2.5 lbs and cost me $895 with a Reynolds Ouzo Pro fork. I love it. It's comfortable and handles like a dream. Eisentraut is also a legend. His lugged steel frames are beautiful. Check out the Henry James website as MichaelW suggests and also sandsmachine.com for lists of American framebuilders