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My understanding was that gold back's were gold because of some minor imperfections in the wood? Maybe a knot or something. Funnily enough my 52 conversion was an all gold (gold finish in the back cavity) but is now a darkback. Theirs a few small knots on mine which would back up the theory.
It's hard to be definitive without more pics but theirs some interesting features which made me look twice. I would probably side with it being a Japanese copy that had been "Gibsonized" but for a couple of hundred dollars it's worth a punt.
I have a vintage single cut melody maker with p90's and vintage junior. The melody maker is certainly no slouch but it's just not the junior. They will always be different beasts. I think ultimately the tonal differences come from the thickness of the body and theirs not really much you can do...