diff --git a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/conf/SettingsTools.java b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/conf/SettingsTools.java
index c6a112ff73..c4dd3a34d2 100644
--- a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/conf/SettingsTools.java
+++ b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/conf/SettingsTools.java
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ public final class SettingsTools {
             }
         }
 
-        return BackslashEscaping.OFF;
+        return BackslashEscaping.DEFAULT;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/Utils.java b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/Utils.java
index dffef84e4c..6739814194 100644
--- a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/Utils.java
+++ b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/Utils.java
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@ package org.jooq.impl;
 import static java.lang.Boolean.FALSE;
 // ...
 import static org.jooq.SQLDialect.CUBRID;
+import static org.jooq.SQLDialect.MARIADB;
+import static org.jooq.SQLDialect.MYSQL;
 import static org.jooq.SQLDialect.POSTGRES;
+import static org.jooq.conf.BackslashEscaping.DEFAULT;
 import static org.jooq.conf.BackslashEscaping.ON;
 import static org.jooq.conf.ParamType.INLINED;
 import static org.jooq.conf.ParamType.NAMED;
@@ -97,6 +100,7 @@ import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Calendar;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.EnumSet;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -1166,13 +1170,14 @@ final class Utils {
         // [#1593] Create a dummy renderer if we're in bind mode
         if (render == null) render = new DefaultRenderContext(bind.configuration());
 
-        // [#3630] Depending on this setting, we need to consider backslashes as escape characters within string literals.
-        BackslashEscaping escaping = getBackslashEscaping(ctx.configuration().settings());
-
         SQLDialect dialect = render.configuration().dialect();
         SQLDialect family = dialect.family();
         String[][] quotes = QUOTES.get(family);
 
+        // [#3630] Depending on this setting, we need to consider backslashes as escape characters within string literals.
+        BackslashEscaping escaping = getBackslashEscaping(ctx.configuration().settings());
+        boolean needsBackslashEscaping = escaping == ON || (escaping == DEFAULT && EnumSet.of(MARIADB, MYSQL).contains(family));
+
         for (int i = 0; i < sqlChars.length; i++) {
 
             // [#1797] Skip content inside of single-line comments, e.g.
@@ -1213,7 +1218,7 @@ final class Utils {
                 for (;;) {
 
                     // [#3000] [#3630] Consume backslash-escaped characters if needed
-                    if (sqlChars[i] == '\\' && escaping == ON) {
+                    if (sqlChars[i] == '\\' && needsBackslashEscaping) {
                         render.sql(sqlChars[i++]);
                     }
 
diff --git a/jOOQ/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-runtime-3.5.0.xsd b/jOOQ/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-runtime-3.5.0.xsd
index 37ef467a1a..b31a1a3a6a 100644
--- a/jOOQ/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-runtime-3.5.0.xsd
+++ b/jOOQ/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-runtime-3.5.0.xsd
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
       <element name="renderScalarSubqueriesForStoredFunctions" type="boolean" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" default="false"/>
       
       <!-- Whether string literals should be escaped with backslash. -->
-      <element name="backslashEscaping" type="jooq-runtime:BackslashEscaping" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" default="OFF"/>
+      <element name="backslashEscaping" type="jooq-runtime:BackslashEscaping" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" default="DEFAULT"/>
 
       <!-- Whether rendered bind values should be rendered as:
       
@@ -208,6 +208,9 @@
       <enumeration value="AUTO"/>
         -->
         
+      <!-- Use the database's most sensible default value for ON (MySQL, MariaDB) / OFF (all other databases) -->
+      <enumeration value="DEFAULT"/>
+      
       <!-- Always escape backslashes. -->
       <enumeration value="ON"/>