diff --git a/docs/reference/index-modules/merge.asciidoc b/docs/reference/index-modules/merge.asciidoc
index 2d3a454e690..7f3a494f989 100644
--- a/docs/reference/index-modules/merge.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/index-modules/merge.asciidoc
@@ -187,11 +187,7 @@ Defaults to unbounded.
 
 The merge schedule controls the execution of merge operations once they
 are needed (according to the merge policy). The following types are
-supported, with the default being the `SerialMergeScheduler`.
-
-Note, the default is the serial merge scheduler since there is a merge
-thread pool that explicitly schedules merges, and it makes sure that
-merges are serial within a shard, yet concurrent across multiple shards.
+supported, with the default being the `ConcurrentMergeScheduler`.
 
 [float]
 ==== ConcurrentMergeScheduler
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/merge/scheduler/MergeSchedulerModule.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/merge/scheduler/MergeSchedulerModule.java
index 672ca527394..01cf42c3b85 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/merge/scheduler/MergeSchedulerModule.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/merge/scheduler/MergeSchedulerModule.java
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 public class MergeSchedulerModule extends AbstractModule {
 
     public static final String MERGE_SCHEDULER_TYPE_KEY = "index.merge.scheduler.type";
-    public static final Class<? extends MergeSchedulerProvider> DEFAULT = SerialMergeSchedulerProvider.class;
+    public static final Class<? extends MergeSchedulerProvider> DEFAULT = ConcurrentMergeSchedulerProvider.class;
 
     private final Settings settings;