Can I use a spoke tension meter to fix my uneven pre-tensioning prior to truing?
You're in the "iterative" part of truing.  

Try loosening a tight spoke by 1/4 turn and tighten the spokes either side by  1/8th of a turn.   Then spin and find the next tight one.  You could use a tension meter to identify tight ones, but touch works pretty well too.

Then move to checking for "out of round" for a bit.  Keep making the worst bit better, then move on.  Remember to relieve the wheel and check it again.

Don't assume that if all spokes had the same tension that the rim will be true... sadly its not like that at all.  There will always be some tension variation around the same side of the wheel.

Even minor variances in the rim and spoke length can cause tension variations in a completely true wheel.   I missed putting spoke prep on one spoke thread, and it needed to be significantly different tension to all other spokes in the wheel.  That was a puzzler!