Originally Posted by CliftonGK1

Plucking a spoke and going by pitch I can understand. I've built plenty of wheels that way, and when checked with a tension meter they were evenly tensioned and within +/- 5 kgf average on target with my reference wheel.
By "feel" I have my doubts. Once you get up over 90 kgf of deflection I wouldn't trust the differentiation by feel alone. It would be pretty easy to have spokes unevenly tensioned by up to 15 - 20 kgf at the higher tensions and not be able to tell except by pitch or tension meter.

If you're building a lot of wheels or have a few bikes to work on, then a full complement of wheelbuilding tools isn't a huge investment; especially when you think of the lifespan of the tools. (speculative pricing based on tools I own)
$35 dishing tool
$20 set of spoke wrenches (assuming you don't need specialty wrenches)
$75 truing stand
$60 tension meter
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~$200 total; which is about 12 trips to the LBS to get a wheel trued (at least around me that's the going rate.) With home built truing and dishing tools, you could knock that price in half, easily.