As far as that loose screw, I've read a few suggestions on this. One is simply to glue in a sliver or 2 of wood and that's that.
My approach (and I have to do this on a parted "telecaster" I am finishing) would be to properly fill in the hole with dowel of the correct size and redrill it.
There is some contention that the grain of the dowel will run the wrong way compared to the neck and not be as strong. However, I don't own a machine to make plugs, so that's the way it will be for me. Besides, I have never had any problem with dowels in other types of wood projects.
Glad to hear it worked out for you so far!
...so ever since then, I always hang on to the buckle.
