I started with a "reel to reel" as others did, about 50 years ago!
I begged my mom for one of these for Christmas, and as soon as I had it I immediately pulled the capstan cover to see how it all worked. I figured out quickly that I could lift the magnet that swung down on the tape when recording and could record over the top of what I previously did!
It was my very first "overdub", but it wasn't very useful because you couldn't listen and record at the same time, obviously. I did a few passes and my mom came in to see who else was in the room with me...
I went through a small variety of recorders, one of which was a Webcor with the "Magic Eye" level indicator.