having dealt with the same issue of achieving vocal sounds on a budget for many years; i would say an sm7b is an absolutely essential piece of gear to have. brilliant on loud vocals as well as guitar cabs, and brilliant for having just set up permanently in the corner of the room to use in the final production stages of a recording (layering harmonies, percussion, addition acoustic or electric guitar) as you do not need any room sound treatment in order for it to sound good. so many of my productions literally consisted of me sitting at the computer desk engineering and using the sm7 as a handheld mic for harmonies and layers etc. such a quick process.
