Help... my turntable is alive!

Just for starters, how old is the turntable? Have you ever serviced the bearing in any way? For example, have you changed the lubricant? On the other hand, a periodic noise with that character of a heart beat is probably not due to a bad bearing. A bad bearing is likely to create a generally elevated and constant background noise.

Do you own any 45 rpm LPs? When you play 45 rpm, does the timing between pulses increase accordingly with the speed? Does the pitch change at higher speeds?

I agree with teo audio, I would call Basis, they are very helpful.

Maybe there is something on or under your belt. Have you inspected the belt carefully for wear, flaws and debris?

Sounds like something could be mechanically "bottoming out" if it is periodic e.g cartridge rear end hitting a warp or negative VTA causing the thicker section of the tone arm to hit a warp(?)

It's a long shot but perhaps when the Graham counterweight is ultra close to the pivot could become momentarily grounded with an extreme warp? I'm not very familiar with the 2.2 so this could be a big misconception on my part.

Well, thank you all for those excellent thoughts.

1. I played a very flat thick 45 RPM record 12" and there was no "heartbeat" at all. Not faster, but rather gone.

2. I checked the belt and it looks fine.

I'm thinking it was a record warp. Since it does not happen on the very flat records, then the turntable bearing is probably OK.

The cartridge comes very, very close to the record when playing and a sharp warp could be the "bottoming out" heartbeat noise. Certainly I need to inspect this issue for more evidence.

I immediately feared the worst, and typed up my question in haste. Thanks again, and I will be doing a more scientific investigation in the next few days and post my results.

John