I don't know if my strings are "too" high or not. I've been told they were too high by a luthier, and I've been told they are just right by a professional ukulele player, both of them standing there at the same time looking at it. However I started out having a little trouble barring that first fret and I kept blaming it on the high action. Then, I started playing White Rabbit by the Jefferson Airplane. I really liked that song when I was kid and the very first 8 track I bought to play in my car was Jefferson Airplane and it had White Rabbit on it. My rendition of it starts out with it going back and forth between the F# and the G. So I barr the F#, then just move the whole thing over one, then back. You do that a couple of times before you move on. At first I was having trouble with the F# and getting it to sound clear, but I like that song so much, that I just kept playing it and playing it and playing it. I would walk around the house playing it sometimes. After a short while, the F# got as clear as a bell, and that seems to have transferred itself to other barred chords as well, especially on the first fret. So my advise is to play White Rabbit.