I have held 1 end and touched the other to a live wire. Kind of a bad child of the swipe your finger over the bare end to see if it is live.
I can tell you a neon tester is no match for a High voltage transformer. Not even at the end of a wooden broom handle, wearing leather gloves with insulated boots on an aluminum ladder and only 1 end of the neon touching the live terminal, the other lead from the neon was in the air.
BTW it was a transformer for an electrostatic Air cleaner that did not seem to make the dust go snap. It made me go snap. I learned a few lessons about trouble shooting and high voltage that day. Fortuneately I survived to apply the lessons I learned.
