Correcting string imbalance

[klaatu]

Hi - this may be a dumb question, but here goes anyway. I own an Eastman AR805CE archtop with a Kent Armstrong floating mini-humbucking pickup. The guitar comes from the factory with D'Addario Jazz Light strings, which are nickel wound steel. These work well with the stock pickup. However, the guitar only really comes to life acoustically with bronze strings. Problem is, if you try to play electrically with the bronze strings on, this creates a really noticeable imbalance in string volume between the bronze wound strings and the unwound B and E. The pickup is only picking up the steel core of the bronze strings.

The pickup does not have adjustable polepieces. Having gone through some expense to have a Pickup the World acoustic pickup installed under the bridge, I am reluctant to swap the floating pickup out at this time. Is there some sort of shielding material I could tape over the B/E string positions to reduce the volume of those strings and correct the imbalance? (preferably something thin and unobtrusive that could be covered with black electrical tape, since the pickup itself is black)

Thanks ...

[stiggowitz]

Klaatu: You posted this back in june so you probably allready solved the problem but ;
I own an Eastman 810 ce and am currently working on the same problem.
A friend of mine (old school archtop player) told me that the way to balance the wound and unwound strings is with a tone control. He proved it by playing my 810 thru his amp and adjusting the tone controls and sure enough balanced the strings nicely.He did however reccommend installing a tone pot next to the volume pot on the guitar for better control and dial-in.
most good luthiers (ones who know guitar electronics) can install a 500k thumbwheel pot right next to the volume pot to keep the look as original as possible.
While bronze wound strings are very alive accoustically they are pathetic when it comes to a standard magnetic pickup. There are specially designed accoustic pickups for bronze wound strings, but if you want to maintain the stock look and sound I would stick with a really good set of Jazz strings such as "Tomastic swing or jazz 12's".
I hope this helps.
stigg.