Check out the work of experimental musician Atsuhiro Ito and his invention, the Optron. His handmade instrument is a customized florescent light fixture that uses microphones near the transformer to pick up the “tone”. Since most modern fixtures now use noise-free electronic ballasts in place of transformers, you can also think of this instrument as “vintage”.
Ito manages to get an impressive variety of sounds and rhythms by interacting with his axe through grounding and power cycling, as well as processing through a number of guitar pedals. Ito and a group of improvisational musicians regularly perform their unique “Japanoise” in Japan and the US.
From Ito’s site:
Atsuhiro Ito was born in 1965. He launched his career as a visual artist in the late ’80s, and in ’98 began presenting sound performances at art exhibitions and so on. Ito made use of fluorescent lighting (which is also an element of his art installations) in the creation of an original musical device called the optron. He continues to refine the instrument while approaching sound and music from a contemporary-art-based perspective.