Chadlinz,
What a great gift. You're going to have a lot of fun with this set-up. Hopefully you have some set-up tools to give you some guidance on VTF and cartridge alignment. As Rushton mentions for fine tuning VTF and VTA just rely on your ears.
I owned the Star with vacuum pump which served me well for several years. It's an awesome TT. I had SOTA upgrade my original Star Series III to a Nova Series V just recently. Originally I ran my SOTA Star with a PS Audio 4.5, Grado Platinum cartridge and AudioQuest PT-6 tonearm. I'v since upgraded but I remember how well that set-up sounded.
Best of luck with your set-up.