[speakerjones]

I'm a big fan of Hamer guitars, a small shop now owned by Fender. They don't sell much under the $1k mark anymore, but they are very undervalued on the used market. So you can get boutique build quality for around $1k, used, pretty easily.

Of course Fender offers their Special and Highway One series which fall under 1k.

And Gibson has some offerings under 1k too, I believe with their Junior/Melody Maker/Special types.