travelling with a guitar

Hey,

I've heard lots about tying guitars to backpacks will result in a broken guitar. Even worse, tying stuff to the guitar bag.

I've got a few questions.

I see how if you tie bags to the guitar case, the weight of the bags pull on the guitar and that can't be good. But visa versa? The weight of the guitar is on the bag, I'm not sure I see the difference between having it attached to a bag, than using the shoulder straps. Sure, I suppose it depends how it's strapped.

More specifically, I was wondering if there's any good way of having both my bags and my guitar using an external frame. in this case, the external frame would hold all the weight, have my guitar bag strapped on securely and then my bags separate. How'd that fare for the guitar?

In a few tests I've done, my main problem with this was that the guitar becomes a fair bit taller than me - but that's not crippling to the guitar. Strapping it securely also requires a decent amount of care, so that its not banging about and that the weight is held from all sides.

Has anyone come up with a practical way of having both bags and guitar on their back? Or another idea that's practical for travelling without resorting to travel guitars, or getting a cheap guitar for the sake of travelling. I travel full-time (already been a few years) and discarding my guitar for another "convenient" option just means never using my guitar again (for the forseeable future).

Ah, and its a resonator, not a full-body one, thankfully, but it is heavier than regular guitars. It's taken years for me to cave to the pressure of carrying it and looking for a better solution. I'll remain diligent in the meantime.

thanks!