I'm afraid I still don't understand what's wrong with the vhs tape (or other resistive strip) method. Each string is isolated, and a separate strip of resistive material is glued to the neck directly under each string. The strip is part of a voltage divider which sends a voltage depending on where you finger it. ;) The only issue I can see is that vhs tape has a resistance around 1Mohm per foot, and the resistance between my fingers is also around 1Mohm, so the neighboring strings could mess up eachother's pitches. Now if I could find a material with a much lower resistance, say 10Kohm/foot, then the resistance between my fingers would be negligible. Or I could play with rubber gloves on....... But seriously, is there something I'm missing here?