By the early 1960s, instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Link Wray, Nokie Edwards and the Ventures and Duane Eddy. This trend was developed by Dick Dale, who added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, the distinctive reverb (giving the guitar a "wet" sound), and the rapid alternate picking characteristic of the genre (influenced by Arabic music, which Dale learnt from his Lebanese uncle). His performances at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, during the summer of 1961, and his regional hit "Let's Go Trippin' later that year, launched the surf music craze, which he followed up with hits like "Misirlou" (1962).