Mine was like the meme; sound recorder and a beige stick microphone put up to an old used Fender practice amp, and a no-name brand guitar from the pawn shop. We've come a long way.
Windows Sound Recorder was an intermediate step for me, when I left my modest gear behind and was basically homeless. All I had access to was a library computer and the crappy headphones they had and no microphone, but I really wanted to create SOMETHING. I'm proud that I could make some really simple, lo-fi, ambient stuff with just a paperclip in the mic jack and the wide array of processing options that WSR has (adjust volume, add echo). It's such an uphill-both-ways kind of story, though.
