I like to feel for the slight drag of a properley loaded bearing so I made up an extra thick small hole washer for the upper end and a threaded block for the other side. The block allows me to clamp the wheel in my bench vise and the thick washer to fully tighten a QR skewer so I can concentrate on only working the one cone without the axle moving. Once set I remove the wheel from the vise to spin the axle by hand and feel for the just barely noticable drag from the proper preload. I found that spinning the axle by hand was the only way to be sure that I got the preload just right. Turning the wheel at the rim has far too much inertia and leverage to feel this adjustment.
If your C&C bearings are still ticking once set correctly it suggests that the bearing pressure tracks on the cup and cone is not matched correctly. Or one of your cups or cones is out of round and is leaving a free spot for the balls to get squirted ahead. Think of the balls as being slimey pumkin seeds squeeze between your thumb and finger. When you push more on one side the seed "squirts" out towards the open area. In a ball bearing setup if one of the races is out of round or has some wear due to pressure or corrosion damage or has an out of round ball you can get this sort of stuff going on. And it would produce a ticking sound when each ball jumps ahead and hits the one in front of it. If a new wheel is doing this then set it as best as you can and go ride it. The balls will likely pressure form and wear the running tracks into perfection soon enough. But you will likely need to adjust them fairly soon since they will also become loose at the same time as they are pressure forming the cup or cone tracks a shade deeper. But after this seating in action they'll be stable for the rest of their lifespan. You can see these pressure formed and polished tracks in older wheels where the ball race tracks are very slightly deepened. And well cared for ones will have mirror like finishes where the balls ride compared to the rougher surroundings.