Refining the trussrod cover of the Harley Benton

Gibsons come with super elegant bell-shaped trussrod covers, attached with two screws, one on the top and one on the bottom. This is possible because on Gibson headstocks, you access the trussrod nut through a hole in the headstock, and there is room between the nut and the hole for a centre screw at the bottom of the cover. On budget guitars, the trussrod nut sits directly under the nut, so what you have on the headstock is not a hole, but a groove. As a result you need two bottom screws above and under the groove to attach the trussrod cover. Hence those ugly looking trapeze shaped covers you see on every budget guitar and building kit. Harley Benton is no excpetion to this, but this SC-450Plus model comes at least with the trapeze filed into a nicer, curved and roughly pointy shape.

Harley Benton VT Series trussrod cover.

You will have noticed, as I did, that this not only has a slightly nicer shape than the average budget trussrod cover, but it is also cut out of 3-ply plastic sheet. Now what does this tell you?