I have just finished my first year as beekeeper, and I had a regular and a TBH. This was a real challengde. The regular was ok, and other beekeepers could give advice easily. The other gave my a lot of headache (probably just being unlucky) giving me a failing queen in the worst possible time.
I should probably have gone for a tanzanian style hive, but I made a quite big version, where I could put regular Norwegian frames under the bars. This saved this hive this year, as I could transfer eggs from the other hive.
The Norwegian frames are a bit shorter than langstroth, I believe, but still the hive was getting quite big since the sides were sloped. It really is a monster :-)
I have learned a lot from having both hives, but I would not recomend it to others. It is probably a much better idea to wait until year two.