"Trying out" a different insturctor just to see - good idea? Badidea?

I'm curious to know if it's a bad idea to "try" another
instructor for a flight, just to see.
Who knows, maybe he's really good.

Been through just about every instructor at the FBO working on my commercial
rating and complex checkout.

There are important things that I have learned from each one of them. One's
a stickler on checklists and cockpit management, one's -really- good at
explaining maneuvers and emergency procedures, and a third is very laid back
and maintains confidence with a low degree of cockpit stress, but doesn't
offer advice unless you ask.

I now have a clear idea of which one I prefer (although I'll still fly with
some, but not all, of the others.)

Hard to say if it will sour the relationship with your instructor, since
they're human. But it's not uncommon at all to have a "primary instructor."
I think the CFIs here will tell you it's not a good idea in your primary
training (ironically), and you don't want to bounce around too much early on
unless you're certain you're uncomfortable with your instructor.

Happy flying. Waiting for the weather to break here to get back into my
commercial. Sucks, 'cause I just spent a whole bunch of money getting
IFR-rated, but you can't do Lazy 8s in clouds. :/

-c

I'd say it's a good idea to fly with different instructors to either
find someone that you get along with better or to occassionally get
some new input. The only important point is that you do maintain one
CFI as your main instructor to monitor your progress.
I changed instructors at around 10 hours and since then took lessons
from mostly the same CFI but also did some flights with 2 other
instructors (mostly for their different takes on improving landings).

- Marco