I have seen some bass and guitar friends get a Sequential Take 5 as their first synth and it seems like a great choice. Won’t help much in the Rhodes department but it can do its own kind of EP sounds and will probably be interesting longer than something like a Reface CP (which I own and love).
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plugins because you can learn how this stuff works for free & then make a more informed decision when you learn what flavor works for you!
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I’d go against the grain and suggest an arranger keyboard. Some surprisingly high quality offerings from Yamaha and Casio for under $500. They’re designed for users who want to play cover tunes and have the sounds people typically expect to use - piano, Rhodes, (sampled) analog polysynths, etc.
Seems like every guitarist who asks for keyboard recommendations wants rompler tones anyway - like strings, drums, horns, organ, etc.
Yamaha PSR-473 - Has knobs that can be assigned to filter cutoff, resonance, etc. Rompler selection includes Super Articulation Lite
Casio CT-S500 - Also has assignable knobs for filter settings, envelope parameters, etc. Also has surprisingly good piano and Rhodes sounds.
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I am a guitarist too.
I just bought my 1st synth, … an ASM Hydrasynth Desktop
I love this thing
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I hadn’t thought of the Reface. That’s not a bad idea. I really want to get him into synths though, and I worry the Reface would be too limited.
I think it’s the latter but I want to turn it into the former.
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Yeah, I was considering recommending the Deepmind. Not too expensive but flexible. But it would feel kinda weird recommending a Behringer. I say this while loving my TD-3-MO.
3 of the refaces would tick all the boxes your friend requires.
CP-for trad piano sounds, CS-for the trad synth sounds and some polyphony, FM-for all the 80s piano and digital synthnsounds.
Not a bad start for not too much money.
One thing not mentioned as a requirement though was patch storage(I think?). This is something that would be very important in a gig based setting for someone new to synthesis.
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At the risk of stating the obvious why not a guitar synth?
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Ok. SH-01a then, maybe?
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Jump-cut to 6 months from now, when your friend is selling all his guitar gear to buy a wall of Eurorack modules 
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Take 5?
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Doesn’t get more 80s than a DX7.
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That’s an LCD Soundsystem lyric right there.
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I don’t think it’s too limiting, but of course not a synth. In fact, now I miss it so much I want one again. Lol.
I have Keyscape, which of course crushes it for choices and variety (and I love Keyscape for the oddball stuff), but the Reface CP sounds are so fantastic and immediate that it is just way more fun for picking up and jamming and writing.
It’s basically the sounds on all the old records I love with no fuss. Definitely not going to get electric piano sounds like that out of a synth. Although something Mini-Moogish would compliment it really well. Then again, all my ideal tones are from 70s records or samples.
If your friend is brand new to synths, I might suggest starting with something easy to learn synthesis. I love the Volca Keys. It’s probably the first synth that enabled me to really understand what I was doing and it has loads of retro sounds (think Boards of Canada) living in there.
Based on my experience, one knob per function would be best for a noob. My first synth was the MicroKorg and the matrix editor on that and the DSI Evolver (my second synth) soured me on synths for pretty much ever.
Some weirder sounds you can do with the effects in here. The tape delay is amazing.
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I give private synth lessons, and people often want to learn how to program their MicroKorg. It’s such a common synth - they must have sold in huge numbers. The interface absolutely sucks. A shame, because there’s a lot of power under the hood.
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I think a big question is whether or not your friend actually wants to learn to play keys. If so, there’s tons of great recommendations here. If not, I highly recommend looking into grid-based controller/desktop synth combos, like a Launchpad or Linnstrument paired with a capable desktop polysynth. All-in-one units with a grid playing surface are less common (unfortunately, in my opinion) with the main one being the Synthstrom Deluge.
As a guitar and strings player myself, I can’t understate how much having a grid controller has opened up music making for me. All of the isomorphic shapes I’m used to playing from guitar translate very well to my Deluge and Launchpad, and although for a while I felt “guilty” or phony for not truly learning to play keys, I am really glad I didn’t invest the time in trying to learn keys. Maybe someday I’ll finally sit down and do it, but at the present I really just want to focus on making music, not learning to play a new control scheme 
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If we‘re talking 80s sounds with the ability to do a decent Rhodes sound, I‘d say a Yamaha DX7 or the reface version.
Yeah, seriously. I got one in 2003 or so (!!!) and it looks like they are still making them. I saw one in the shop and it’s actually what inspired me to get my first little music “studio” together. I ended up buying one of those and a Korg ESX-1, which was also new at the time. I didn’t know anything about synthesis though and that matrix editor did my head in.
Years later I saw this Dorian Concept video and realized how cool it is in the right hands.
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Woah really??? Oh my lorde
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