i've only got a little money to spend so i have to choose. i'm using an sm58 to mic just about everything (vocals, instruments, cars outside), but a pre-amp would probably go a long way to improving my sound. i already have a 4 track mixer, but don't use it for recording, just for mixing outputs...
i just put up a new track at my mp3.com site which i'm not totally satisfied with.
it's called "friends?" and it's the first track at:
http://www.mp3.com/usman
i've been working on it for almost 4 months though and don't know quite where to take it. it has a kind of 70s soul sort of sound...