turntable recommendations for a vinyl newbie...

If you know little about vinyl, and I'm assuming you don't want to (or can't) employ the services of a good dealer (which you should) I suggest buying a Music Hall MMF5 and about 10 new records from Acoustic Sounds and see how you like dealing with it. It's either going to click with you or not. The MMF5 is not a great tt, but, having owned one, I think it's good enough to let you know whether you want to continue down the vinyl road. If you decide to sell, you'll lose a couple hundred. I would not deal with old thrift-shop records, as they will be noisy, dirty and damaged and will invariably diminish your pleasure at this stage. Better Records also has many sealed or mint copies of older vinyl and their grading system is right on. Mint means mint. Plus, for $5, they'll clean the records for you, saving you the investment in a machine which you WILL need should you get serious about vinyl.

I enjoy my digital setup very much and do most of my listening with it. But I think analog is worth exploring, and when done well, can be a source of much pleasure - or grief. Like everything else in this hobby. Good luck

Ah you have a beautiful system , first of all get a good phonoamplifier with sufficient gain thats were most analogue systems go wrong in my opinion and also a lot of " dealers" , i suppose a atmasphere could be build in your atma pre .
There are plenty of good tables and cartridges

The "cost" of trying vinyl is not in the friction of buying hardware used for $1000 on Agon and then reselling it for a few dollars less after having spent a few or several months learning about setup, figuring out that your first choice of cartridge (done on a budget) just doesn't cut it, buying another, researching to find another one, cleaning records, wasting Saturday mornings at yard sales, pissing off your significant other with the new mess and distractions, spending more time surfing Agon and the Vinyl Asylum trying to figure out how to spend a few hundred dollars more to reach nirvana, etc. It's the "cost" of the time if you later deem it to have been a waste.

You may have to temper your expectations a bit for $1000. It is not impossible to get decent vinyl sound from that kind of money (assuming the phono stage is already in the pre), but beating an excellent and expensive digital system playing through excellent amplification for that budget is a tall order.

I agree with T-Bone in that a cheap tt with thrift shop records may end up a big waste of time, but I still maintain that a new MMF-5 (There's one up from Underwood) at a good price, and a bunch of new records from Better Records or Acoustic sounds, will give the OP a good sense of whether he wants to continue with vinyl. I agree, buying someones flaky tt and messed up records may well be a waste of time and that's why I recommend against it.

It seems to me, TB, you're advocating not doing anything because it may be a waste of time. I guess the answer to that is - how much time do you have to waste? Some have much more than others.

Chayro,
I am not advocating doing nothing. I am simply trying to point out the nature of the "costs." Based on the fact that the OP has a friend who will set up the TT, and he has demonstrable sensitivity to having too much potential loss if it turns out bad. I would personally suggest something like a used VPI Classic, or possibly the Nottingham Spacedeck here on Agon for $1300. Disclaimer: no connection to anything being sold on Audiogon (as of the day of posting).