I'm having terrible trouble with this. Does anyone have any good tips on getting them to ring rather than thunk? I have no trouble with natural harmonics, but find artificial incomparably more difficult.

With your right hand, I'm assuming you're using your third finger to pluck the string? Then, have you tried putting the first finger of your right hand so that it's just touching the string but hovering over the actual fret, not to the left of the fret like you would for a normal note but is just touching the string OVER the fret? Then as you pluck with the third finger, you kind of flick your first finger up (I'm sure you know this already).

My articifical harmonics sounded awful until my teacher told me to hold my first finger over the string over the fret.

Hope this helps.

Yip, am doing all that. But the sound I get is either still very thunky, or just very thin sounding.

I haven't really done much work using artificial harmonics, so have never had that much practice with them, really.

Who was it that was saying guitar was easy??

Didn't see that, but they're mad. And I am not even a guitarist to want to defend the guitar!

You could try using your fourth finger (instead of the third). It lets you pluck further away from the static point of the string. The further away, the less thunky the sound.

I find it difficult to play accurately up and down the string with both hands at once ... just one is a challenge.

Nah harmonics are dead simple. All you gotta do is practice lots and keep altering the pressures you apply until it works out right. It's different for every instrument. It sounds to me like your doing everything right, so with time and practice it should happen naturally.

Have you tried playing artificial harmonics when you're nervous? That's when the fun really starts.

Yes! Or in the last song after a very long gig, with hands sweaty, fingers red & raw, and too much grog in the system!

As well as trying with the little finger to pluck the harmonic, keep the index finger as straight as you can and touch the string a little way back from the tip. Then its a knack of enough pressure to sound the harmonic but not so much to damp it dead.

Good point Stefano. I hadn't realised that keeping the finger vertical reduces the size of the contact point by a lot. Just need to get the first finger position right now ...

I've copied my teacher's style - which is the very straight index finger, and he uses his a finger for the plucking. I'm still thunking. I don't think I'm moving my finger away from the strings fast enough. Every now and again, I do it and it sounds fab, but most of the time... *shudder*