Tabs driving me nuts

I've looked all over the web, all the usual recommendations don't get into any detail. I take it when tabs are four in line that is a chord, but what if they are only two or three notes in a vertical line on a tab? I was playing some of the songs from Jim Richters site, and sometimes its appears that these are played individually but sometimes as a chord, and if I don't know the song well, I don't even know which order the notes would be picked. And I won't even get into all the other weird symbols I see, which don't even look like traditional music notation. I wish there was one source that described tabs beyond just the basic stuff. Maybe there is and I haven't found it.

strum from low to high together if they are on the same line, like double stops

That's what I would think, but playing Jim Richter tabs for needle and the damage done for just one example, the first line,..that descending baseline part, there is a 2 and a 5 lined up, and it only sounds like the song when picked, and picked from high to low. I am wondering if tabs are even standardized.

Well, the first thing is to know how the song goes...some TAB is written with timing but most isn't. Follow along with the TAB while you listen to the recording, get a slow downer program if you need it.

Here are results from a Google search of "reading mandolin TAB" https://www.google.com/search?client...30.mGZ85-tapDo

Normally tablature notation is like staff notation in that everything that is aligned vertically happens at the same time.

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Originally Posted by JSC

That's what I would think, but playing Jim Richter tabs for needle and the damage done for just one example, the first line,..that descending baseline part, there is a 2 and a 5 lined up, and it only sounds like the song when picked, and picked from high to low. I am wondering if tabs are even standardized.

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Here is a video of Jim playing that tune. Use that in conjunction to the TAB and you should get it. I think learning an unknown tune from TAB might be ore difficult by itself. I can't access the TAB without subscribing to the site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3JRiROCHU

For starters in the NEEDLE rendition, leave the first string open during the first four measures and it will be more like Neil did it.