That's certainly where I'd start; check the tightness of the nuts on the top side of the pickguard. Also, on some pickguard assemblies there's a tiny hole adjacent to the bigger hole where the pot shaft comes through. There can be a small bump of metal on the pot that actually goes into this small hole and that helps keep it in place. See if your old pickguard had the small holes and see if your new one does or not.
Dressing the end of the frets is a job for a file and some steel wool. Make sure you cover your pickups so the tiny metal shavings and fragments don't get stuck to the magnet poles in your pickups. If I were doing this for the first time, I'd use masking tape to cover the wood on either side of each fret around the edge of the fretboard.
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