When it was time to set the new coping, I figured out what the additional mud was on the top of the bond beam for. The top of the bond beam was not level! This is how I fixed it. I bought some 12' x 7-1/4" x 5/16" House siding, then cut them in half so they are now 12' x 3-5/8" x 5/16, and I used Tap-Cons to mount the panels on the face of the bond beam where the tile will be mounted, I made the top edge of the panel level. Now it's easy to set the coping level, I just needed to worry about getting the 3-1/2 x 9" paver coping level from front to back, because the front was already at the right height and level from side to side from the panels I screwed on.

Doug