I tried to solder together through-hole resistors with surface-mount SPST NC push-button switches.

It failed. I managed to get all the resistors and switches soldered together, but the solder joints broke with little bit of force from pushing the read rope into the vinyl tubing.

This experience showed me that read rope will require an expensive prototype of a flexible pcb with only surface-mount components to accomplish the objective of creation of a thin device that outputs voltage depending on location of lightweight bends.

A through-hole prototype for this is not viable because small through-hole switches are relatively big and have a higher actuator force requirement than surface-mount SPST NC switches. This would not work well with the requirements of the read rope of being small and requiring little force from a bend to activate the switch.

A through-hole prototype for read rope is also not viable because the through-hole resistors are relatively big for the intended application and bring more noise than surface-mount chip resistors.