Both, Lead. Strings WILL make a difference, and another reason you don't want to play 'old time' style against your chest is that your intonation will suffer big time.

I would also suggest Thomastik Dominants, and my Maggie fiddle is a brassy bitch too. If I ask her to, she can walk on 2 5 string banjos and a piano accordian. A LOT of it is due to bow pressure on the strings.