diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/LocalHBaseCluster.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/LocalHBaseCluster.java
index 6b5139a7485..f550c7a9678 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/LocalHBaseCluster.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/LocalHBaseCluster.java
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ public class LocalHBaseCluster {
     // its HConnection instance rather than share (see HBASE_INSTANCES down in
     // the guts of HConnectionManager.
     JVMClusterUtil.MasterThread mt = JVMClusterUtil.createMasterThread(c,
-        this.masterClass, index);
+        (Class<? extends HMaster>) conf.getClass(HConstants.MASTER_IMPL, this.masterClass), index);
     this.masterThreads.add(mt);
     return mt;
   }