MIMF

I'm planning to build a hammered dulcimer. It's suggested that the best material for the pin blocks is rock maple. I went to my local wood store and they had western maple, eastern maple and birds-eye maple. Are any of these a substitute for rock maple?

( I asked at the store and the guy said they all seemed pretty hard to him?)

It's also known as Sugar Maple or Hard Maple
-Acer saccharum

Rock maple is hard maple (often called sugar maple). I would guess the western and eastern maples they have are soft maples. Bird’s eye is most often found in hard maple but it does show up in soft maple less often (as I understand it). So, the bird’s eye they have is likely hard maple. Below is a pretty good article from wood database about hard and soft maple:
https://www.wood-database.com/wood-arti ... oft-maple/

As for pin blocks, I don’t know if soft maples are up to the task or not.

Soft maple will DEFINITELY NOT work as pin block material.

I was thinking about this again last night. I'm surprised that a hardwood dealer would not have immediately known you were referring to hard maple when you said "rock maple" and stating that they all seemed pretty hard to him is a bit disconcerting. A hardwood dealer would know the difference between hard maple and soft maple. Perhaps had you spoken to a more experienced employee if they would have directed you to the hard maple pile.