Bongomania beat me to it - simply treat it like a Bass Guitar as opposed to the (quasi) Upright that it is. That's what TLev as well as JM-J did, the latter during the "Unplugged" portion of NINs "Lights In The Sky" as well as last Summer's "NIN|JA" tour, and it's worked out great for both of them.
A cool parallel of using "Classical" instruments with modern effects and non-traditional playing techniques is the scores to the modern "Battlestar Galactica" which have a number of instruments (traditional European "classical", Eastern & Western Asian stringed instruments, and the "Poundy Drums" the show is known for
) electronically effected or otherwise used in ways they're certainly not typically known for. Take violinist Paul Cartwright, who would usually be "First Violin" in a typical orchestral setting, but for BSG he got to run his violin through several evolving pedalboards...
...begat:
(Distorted Violin through Wha and Whammy Pedal!
)
...and into a miked 50-year-old Fender Tweed Champ that the Composer and Engineer though kicked so much a$$ that they dropped the separate Direct Box line-in. This info as well as the photos come from the Blog of composer
Bear McCreary, which shows
fantastic insight into music for television/movies/high-end video games and the various ups, downs, and processes faced to bring a score in on time and budget.
A great video to check out would be "The Battlestar Galactica Orchestra" (a scaled-down only to be manageable live orchestra that's performed several concerts of music from BSG) performing "
Apocalypse", which is a Rockin'-Out arrangement of the series opening theme done for "The Plan" TV/DVD movie that premiered last January. There's an absolutely amazing Distorted/Effected solo by cellist Tina Guo @ 3:37 of the video (and if you enjoy it, please purchase it legitimately from iTunes
) that is a great example of using traditional instruments to make non-traditional musical sounds.
