My evolution is unusual. I started recording in the 90s when I discovered looping. So my rigs were mostly about capturing live sound-on-sound looping. I tried but never got into DAWs, so with standalone equipment progressed slowly until recently, and have now regressed significantly. When you get tired of reading, skip to the end.
1. Piezo p/u into original Boomerang phrase sampler, into RCA plug adapter, into Pioneer component system's tape deck.
2. Shure 545 (basically a hi-z version of the 57) into Boomerang, to 4-track Tascam Portastudio, overdub as desired, EQ thru Pioneer stereo component, and mixdown to standalone Sony CD recorder.
3. Piezo p/u and Shure 545 into Boss line mixer, to Boss RC-2 loopstation, to cheap digital recorder. Load file to computer and master in CoolEdit. Burn CD.
4. Piezo and 545 into EHX 2880 multitrack looper, into Tascam Portastudio (digital), edit and master in Audacity. Burn to CD.
5. Blue large diaphram condenser and Behringer small diaphram condenser into Behringer mixer, to EHX 2880 looper, to Portastudio, finish in Audacity. Burn to CD.
6. Oktava MK-012 and K&K/RedEye preamp into Soundcraft mixer, EHX 2880 looper and Lexicon reverb in effects loop, record to Portastudio and finish Audacity. Load files to Bandcamp.
7. Guitar straight into looper, to acoustic amp. Record a video on iPhone and post to Facebook.