well the key point I'm trying to make is to use OTHER means for stereoizing your guitar, not phase reverasal on such a massive and direct all encompassing manner as MSED decoding. First stereoize it, then after that encode to mid side for processing and then decode back.

By using choruses, delays, modulations,etc to stereoize the signal, I'm not saying it will be without phasing, but it will not be a large single flip of the entire guitar sound.

Yes...by using mid side processing, you can gain some of the effect of your "mushroom cloud" where you are able to effect the sides differently then the mid in a limited fashtion. However, if you start with mono sound and decode through MSED decode you are creating very large phase problems. If you start with it being at least stereoized "enough", then you don't have to worry about that problem, but you then go on to use mid side processing to do more.

The Vexengo sound Delay plugin you mentioned allows you to apply different amounts of delay to the mid or side, which is interesting, But I'm not sure that would bring anything good either. Mostly the purpose of that plugin is for latency compensation when using different plugins that might introduced latency. Outright delaying the sides from the mid is yet another creative outside the box thing to try and get some interesting results, but since the ms decoding process requires the side to be flipped and combined with the mid, etc, the delay would cause things to not cancel out properly and that flipped channel would heavily cancel out the other one. You would end up losing the sides.

I still think you're missing the point. This sound is all about the phase issues and "sculpting" them into a sound. Creating the "problem" and then taming it is the key.

If you follow what I did, and try it (have you?), you will see that it is not a mono signal that goes into MSED. It is a mono signal that is independently processed by 2 different cabs. This imparts different frequency and phase characteristics to each of the 2 channels that are fed into MSED to decode. It is this intentional corruption of Mid/Side that creates the effect I want. I can then shape it. Sometimes you do need to make the original sound doubled or stereo, if the cabs, or fx chains, produce similar results.

Everything you've said is trying to take the life out of it and make it predictable, why?

So again, and for the last time, I say try it. Don't be scared, Sound Engineers will still sleep soundly, at their consoles, probably recording James Blunt.

Ok man, I don't really wish to argue with you, go ahead and make all the phased out sound you want. why not. Just pointing the problems and trying to offer some solutions.

But I've never had any real problems with it. The occasional mismatch of cab, or too much of one fx, and that's it.

All the phase stuff you keep mentioning is only in theory. In practise, to me at least, it sounds good, mixes well, and is easy to do (once past the learning curve).

So try it and let me know how it turns out. Man cannot live by theory alone. Trust me, I'm a physicist, well in theory at least .

Just on phase issues. The Fender Jazz Bass has two single coil pickups. If you listen to just one by zeroing the volume of the other, they are pretty noisy. People commonly play with a combination of the two pickups and enjoy the hum cancelling that results in this configuration.

What about the phase issues? The two pickups hear different proportions of the various harmonics. For some harmonics there are cancellations and others are reinforced by summing these two pickups. This is pretty much the same sort of situation you get with out of phase mics on cabs and yet it is just part of the signature sound of the Fender Jazz Bass. Nobody loses any sleep over it.