Looks like someone has the Backstop set up very stiff. If you crank it down like that, you can screw the spring claw in farther and it becomes almost a hardtail.
'87's are very distinct. The input jack angles down (only year it does that) and the controls are really tightly clustered. They also had chrome hardware.
There were two runs of 540S in '87. The first is the one TAR shows. The jack points down, there are toggles instead of a blade, and the vol and tone controls are close together. Then the second run is the one the OP has. All same as first run but vol and tone controls are wider spaced.
Backstops were standard on this guitar in 87 and 88.
That thing is so mint for its age (no rust on pole pieces from sweat or wear on thin black finish on hardware). I wonder how people find stuff like this. The double locking Ibanezes I see are such great guitars and usually played to death. They don't sit idly on stands/cases unless the owner has other Ibanezes that get the air time.
Mine looks like TAR but has black humbucker pickup ring and doesn't have the "backstop" logo on the bridge. It does have the backstop tho. Pretty sure it's all stock. I've had it since 1989.
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