Is there anything else I can do to brighten the sound of my violin?

I have an older German made violin (one estimate was about 100 years old) that's been through a bit. It's really pretty, with mother-of pearl inlay on the fingerboard and fancy purffling (sp? inlay around the edges). It sounds nice to me, but my violin teacher told me that the A and D strings sound dull (little projection). I had the soundpost adjusted by a noted violin luthier in my area, who said that he thought the problem was that it had been refinished by the previous owner, and that the new varnish was too thick and had soaked into the wood. (I know now that refinishing a violin is bad, but I didn't know that when I bought it). I restrung it recently with Dominants (except E, which is Heliocore). The luthier recommended converting it to electric as it has a nice tone, but I am not ready to do that yet as I am still a beginner. Is there anything else I can do to brighten the sound? I am thinking about switching back to a steel core string like Heliocore, but I would like some feed back first.