It's not really difficult to operate. Personally I don't think it's the ideal (first) synth for someone who has very little experience, but it's by no means one of the hardest to navigate. The manual will give you so much, but you'll learn more hands on. The area I'd say most newbies got hung up on was sequencing. If memory serves me correctly there was (3) modes. Voice, Performance, and Drum. Sequencing of multiple tracks was done under Performance mode. This confused a lot of newbies. It's like that with other synths as well. I think he'll be fine with it. He just has to give it time and be willing to learn the OS.

Squeak