Strolling dulcimer for learning?

Hi.  This might be a controversial question - I'm not sure.  I have been wanting to learn dulcimer for years and, finding myself suddenly downsized out of a job after 35 years, this seems like a good time.  I have a borrowed dulcimer that I'm a bit afraid to play (my generous friend didn't mention it was such a wonderful dulcimer - I could never replace it if something happened!) so I'm exploring options for an instrument of my own.  Having played guitar for years, the strolling dulcimers seem natural to me in some ways - but I am wondering if that would make learning difficult?  It seems that most of the instructional material and tab music available is for traditional, DAdd-tuned lap dulcimers.  I gather the bass and melody are reversed on the strolling instruments?  Could I just read tabs "upside down" to learn and play?  Or is that silly?  

I ask in part because I will probably want to play modern music as well as traditional tunes.  Whichever instrument I buy, I think I'd like to add the 1+ fret to the 6+ and 13+ that seem to be standard now unless one is buying an older or a student instrument.  It also seems that strum sticks of various sorts reverse the melody and bass as compared to a mountain dulcimer - because I am about to travel quite a bit, I've thought about those a practical option...

So - given that I can't afford to buy multiple instruments - would I just be making it harder on myself to learn from books/videos and to use all the free or low-cost tab music shared online if I chose a strolling dulcimer as my first dulcimer?

Thanks!   Mary Beth   (mbethical)