Originally Posted by: jedftYes, it's already a hardtail. Thanks for the dowel tip. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Should I make the dowel quite a bit larger (diameter) than the old screw hole, or keep it small?

No bigger than necessary to do the job.

Also, ec's suggestion can work and I've used that myself, although it does not last as long. It's pretty much done for if you need to remove the pick guard again in the future. Another simplified approach would be to jam some glue & toothpicks in there and trim them off. Again, it won't be a durable, but it will hold for a while.

The proper and most durable method will be to properly replace the worn and missing material with new wood.