Originally Posted by
cycle_maven
I'd spend the same money on a tension meter, rather than a truing stand. Sure, the truing stand makes truing easier than using the thumbnail on a brake pad method, but the tension meter will get all the spokes on each side to the same tension, which is way more important than a mm of wobble or a couple mm of dish offset. At least for me.
+1
Supposedly if you pluck the spokes in a certain spot, they should sound like a middle "F" or something if properly tensioned.
In my case, I wouldn't trust my ear and I agree that the tension is difficult to get right by feel without a lot of experience. To me though there's a lot of valid methods for getting a wheel true. So yeah, if I was building a wheel and given the choice between a tensiometer and a truing stand, I take the tensiometer.