I own a grand strumstick -- and I love it. Mine is tuned DAd -- with the last "d" an octave higher than the first "D". Fret anywhere on the bottom (geographically lowest, highest sounding) string and strum. The other two strings create a pretty drone like a dulcimer or bagpipes.
For the musically clumsy like me, finding a note by "ear" is easy. The open "d" is doe, first fret is "re" third is "re" and so on. Somewhere in there you need to skip a fret, but you get the idea. It's a pretty easy major scale. If you know someone who can poke out a melody on a piano, they'd take to the strumstick easily.
http://www.strumstick.com/
I consider it a long necked mountain dulcimer -- strung kinda backwards and played like a guitar or uke.
McNally strumsticks are well made and sound excellent. I noticed the other guy on ebay. His look good, but not quite as nice as McNally. A third guy, Blaine Horlocker makes the strum stick (two words) and sells them in a slightly different shape for the body. Blane's a good guy.
http://www.smokeymountaindulcimer.com/
The best part about the Strumstick or strum stick is that it always sounds like music... That's why they call it
no wrong notes. Mess up a chord on a uke and it can be a train wreck, but these things usually sound good even if you don't know what you're doing. Which is good, cause I don't. It sounds like a cross between a banjo, sitar and dulcimer.
By the way, if anything above is musically technically inaccurate, let me know. Considering my vast inexperience, I could easily sound like Cliff Claven.