I bought my bike about a month ago. Within the first week, I noticed a hingy, squeezing noise from the rear wheel, and it turned out to be spoke tension issues. Performance Bike adjusted the spokes for me. Now I'm hearing the same noise from the front wheel, and I'm looking into fixing it myself.

I'm not crazy about the TM-1 being $57, but how much would the average LBS charge to assess and fix spoke tension? And how often should spokes be checked?

Do I need to get all four of the spoke wrenches? They're pretty cheap, or should I just get the one that fits my wheels (Shimano WH-R500, 3.4mm?) for now?

You don't really need a tension meter for this. The shop tweaked up the rear wheel so you can use the tightness and/or musical tone of those spokes as a guide to setting your front wheel. Obviously you only need the one spoke wrench as well. But if you want to get all four for later on then fill your boots.

If you want the tension meter as a long term tool and plan on using it on more than one bike by all means jump in on that front as well. But to just do one wheel I would not go that far. Not when you have a rear that is freshly tuned to use as an example.

The other thought is that Performance SHOULD have done both wheels but it would appear that they didn't. So they owe you a tuneup on the front as part of the warranty. Where you go from there is up to you. Ask about how much a yearly tuneup for the bike costs. Even a basic tuneup should include a quick check and tune of the spokes for trueness and tension.

How do I match the tension based on musical note? I don't have perfect or relative pitch.

Most folks can hear pitch well enough. It doesn't need to be 100% exact. The spokes won't all be tuned to the exact same pitch in any event. Instead they will be within 4 or 5 piano notes of each other on any given wheel. Closer is better but 4 or 5 notes worth is fine for most practical riding.

I tap the spokes at mid point with a plastic screwdriver handle. This produces a clear enough tone. If you truly can't tell the difference between a clear note from the supposedly tuned rear wheel and a loose sounding THLOP sound from the presumabley loose front wheel spokes then go by the amount of tension and movement you can feel and see when you squeeze sets of spokes together. If you can't get a feel for that either then there's no help for you but to either buy the tension meter or pay someone that knows this stuff and can do the job.

But in the end there are very few truly tone deaf people out there. Mostly they are just not taking the time to listen correctly and analyse what they are hearing. As in many things practice makes perfect.

Here's a link to an online Java piano to use as a comparison;
https://www.pianoworld.com/fun/javapiano/javapiano.htm

I try to get my spokes for front wheels for road bikes up to about the same sound as the fourth or fifth white key from the left. For drive side spokes of rear wheels about the 6th or 7th white key from the left and for non drive side rear spokes about the fourth to fifth again. But a one or two key range from these center points is also suitable. Give it a try!

I'm certainly not tone deaf. I've been in music since 5th grade. So I could probably tune my spokes with my guitar?

Can anyone help verify that the Shimano R500 wheels have 3.4mm nipples? I'm assuming they're the 2010 set.

So you were just funnin' us with this post?

No. I just thought the pitch of the spokes would be really high, but I just tapped them with a pen and found them to be quite low.

But if the drive side spokes on the rear wheel are tuned different, do I compare the front spokes to the non-drive side spokes?

Because of the flatter dishing on the drive side the spokes are tighter. But equally the deeper dish of the NDS means they are not as tight. So the front, assuming a rim brake wheel, should be more or less in between the two rear sides since both sides of the front share the same in between angle.

I just checked and my pitch was a bit out. A check of three of my front wheels showed tones varying from the 5th to 7th white key from the left. DS rears are more like 7th to 8th and NDS from 4th to 6th. Find those on your guitar and you'll have one of the fanciest spoke tension checkers out there...

If you're running butted spokes all the tones shoudl be one to two notes higher due to the thinner guage in the middle region of the spoke.