A devastating loss to the guitar world:

Ventures lead guitarist Bob Bogle, whose fretwork on such instrumental hits such as "Walk -- Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O" influenced countless bands, died Sunday in Vancouver, Washington.

He was 75.

The cause was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to Don Wilson, who co-founded the Ventures with Bogle in the 1950s.

"He had a special sound that nobody could ever re-create. He was totally unique as a guitar player," Wilson told CNNRadio.

Surf-rock, the genre perfected by the Ventures, is written off by the foolish as a kind of novelty style, but when done right the blend of jazz rhythms, twangy rock and roll guitar and subtle latin flavor is one of the few rock-based genres to ever take off in earnest without a lead singer steering the ship. The Ventures (the best selling instrumental band of all time) are the style's finest. Bob Bogle may be gone, but he's in every whammy bar shake on a Stratocaster for some time to come.