DD. Just to go against the grain.
Today i got my zoom h2 recorder. Ive been very very suprised at the shear quality of the mikes on the thing. I've put guitar tracks for 4 songs on it this evening. Its simple just put it infront of the amp press record and play away. It also interfaces as a mike direct into your pc via usb, has no lag that i can see and even a inbuilt compressor. Obviously the sm57 is the industry standard its never going to replace that. But for a good interface for home recording i think the zooms a cracking toy.

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No no and no

+1 on the SM-57

Another one I like is the Senn E-609 because of it's flat design it's great for hanging over the speaker.

This one :

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-SEN-E609S-LIST

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Thanks a lot guys. I like the idea of the Zoom. I've always had great results with thier products. I was looking into getting one for some field recordings. We were going to track this band, but they wanto to try it live so we'll see what happens. A lot of the time you can catch some great enery that way, and the Alesis usb mixer we've been using is a great product for the price. Thanks for all the advice guys.

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-Classic 50's Strat.
-Std. Telecaster.
-Mike Dirnt P-bass.
-Custody of SE Strat.
-Peavey Predator/Dean Evo/Epiphone DR150/Gibson Slide (much older than me).

Rellik Productions Inc.

I use a Rode M3 condenser mic for home recording. Very quality but depends on whether you're recording more electric or acoustic.

Here's another vote - and a reluctant one - for the SM57. I always wanted to have a "cool guy" answer to this question, so I resisted the old "stick a 57 in it" routine (mostly because the vast majority of Internet Dudes who said "stick a 57 in it" had never been within two miles of a recording studio). And while I never use an SM57 alone (it's always in combination with one or more large diaphragm condensers, or a big "D" dynamic like an EV RE-27), nothing quite captures that sound you think of as "guitar" like a 57.

The Sennheiser 609 looks pretty groovy hanging over a combo amp. But if you use it that way, you can't move the mic away from the grille, and the best sound is often found by moving the mic closer to or further from the speaker, in 1/2 inch increments (no, I'm not kidding).

A 57 makes a decent rock vocal mic, too.

AS for bass, why knock yourself out trying to mic an impossible-to-mic instrument when you can just run direct and sound awesome (as the bass players on 96.4% of your favorite records did)? SansAmp, Bass POD, even a simple Radial DI will sound infinitely better than most mics... most of us don't even record in a room big enough to really get those waves developed, anyway. I love the flexibility of my Bass POD.... I can blend the modeled signal with a "DI" signal, flip the phase on the direct channel and get huge, fat, soild, round bass tone.

Haha - yes, I was waiting for that! I've read your luke warm feelings about the ol' SM57 before.

Darkly Dreaming, I've noticed that Mr SlapChop clearly has masses of experience of this stuff and I'd pay good attention to what he says.

Just to throw something completely different into the mix, I've had very nice results with ADK condenser mics. Their range goes from very affordable up to something around half the price of a top end Neumann:

http://www.adkmic.com/

More affordable models here - look particularly at the Project G and Studio Series for cost-effective options:

http://adkmicrophones.com/

My collection keeps growing and these days I'm using large diaphragm ADKs for drum overheads, vocals and also guitar amp mic'ing and sometimes acoustic guitar. I use their small diaphragm mics for hi-hat, sometimes on snare and occasionally for the fingerboard of an acoustic guitar, if that's the type of setup you like.

If you haven't, try mic'ing your guitar cab with a condenser and see how you feel about the difference from dynamic mics. May or may not suit you, but give it a go...

Cheers - C