Let me preface my answer by saying that (a) I do not know what other musical background you have and (b) whether you were the kind of kid that liked disassembling alarm clocks and putting them back together again.

Compared to more elaborate instruments, this one is "simple." Instead of friction pegs (which either slip or jam depending on temperature and humidity), it uses mechanical guitar tuners. It has only three strings - two drones and one chanter or melody string. It has some synthetic parts, which allow it to be a little more forgiving of temperature and humidity than an all wood gurdy - though it will still require frequent adjustment and some playing-in. The tangents ARE tunable, being little PVC fooseball flippers that slot into the key pegs. The range is only about an octave and a half, diatonic.

Mine drove me crazy for a very long time - until I got angry enough at the nasty email from the manufacturer about not knowing what I was doing. (Dude, if you're going to build an entry-level instrument, suck up and deal with the fact that you're going to get entry level buyers, ok?)
I went to the Guitar Center, bought the cheapest classical guitar strings they had, restrung the sunufabitch and got balanced tone out of it for the first time since I'd bought it after about forty minutes of shimming and recottoning the new strings.

It's tempermental - it's a gurdy. But it's taught me a lot and given me good service for several years. If my budget ever allows, I would love to trade up, but it's gotten the job done.

I also confess that I like the portability of the symphonie style gurdy. The case is compact enough to go on a plane as carry-on, and the instrument itself weighs 8 pounds.