A lot of expertise here, but what do you want to achieve, virtuosity or a nice, rich chordal accompaniment?

If it's the second, just go for a nice open tuning. Richie Havens and eminent mudcatter Peace have managed to get a lot of mileage this way, emphasizing rhythm and tone, sounds great behind their voices.

For more intricacy, I've always loved my Mahalo guitar-uke. It's really just a small guitar, identical to a guitar capoed at the fifth fret, but very easy to play, requires very little strength. It only cost 50 bucks, and anything you learn on it can be transferred to a bigger machine later. It sounds better than you'd expect for 50 bucks.