  In this note we prove an effective characterization of when two finite-degree
covers of a connected, orientable surface of negative Euler characteristic are
isomorphic in terms of which curves have simple elevations, weakening the
hypotheses to consider curves with explicitly bounded self-intersection number.
As an application we show that for sufficiently large N, the set of unmarked
traces associated to simple closed curves in a generically chosen
representation to SL(N, R) distinguishes between pairs of non-isomorphic
covers.
