diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java
index 73d6aeadaae..8f18fda6e13 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java
@@ -85,10 +85,11 @@ public class QueryParsing {
    */
   public static Query parseQuery(String qs, String defaultField, SolrParams params, IndexSchema schema) {
     try {
-      String opParam = params.get(OP, schema.getQueryParserDefaultOperator());
-      QueryParser.Operator defaultOperator = "AND".equals(opParam) ? QueryParser.Operator.AND : QueryParser.Operator.OR;
       SolrQueryParser parser = new SolrQueryParser(schema, defaultField);
-      parser.setDefaultOperator(defaultOperator);
+      String opParam = params.get(OP);
+      if (opParam != null) {
+        parser.setDefaultOperator("AND".equals(opParam) ? QueryParser.Operator.AND : QueryParser.Operator.OR);
+      }
       Query query = parser.parse(qs);
 
       if (SolrCore.log.isLoggable(Level.FINEST)) {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java
index bf15dec4508..2a92b984ef9 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ public class SolrQueryParser extends QueryParser {
     super(defaultField == null ? schema.getDefaultSearchFieldName() : defaultField, schema.getQueryAnalyzer());
     this.schema = schema;
     setLowercaseExpandedTerms(false);
+    String operator = schema.getQueryParserDefaultOperator();
+    setDefaultOperator("AND".equals(operator) ? QueryParser.Operator.AND : QueryParser.Operator.OR);
   }
 
   protected Query getFieldQuery(String field, String queryText) throws ParseException {