diff --git a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/DefaultBinding.java b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/DefaultBinding.java
index aec73e880b..cf96d21c0f 100644
--- a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/DefaultBinding.java
+++ b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/DefaultBinding.java
@@ -3782,6 +3782,8 @@ public class DefaultBinding<T, U> implements Binding<T, U> {
 
         static final <R extends Record> R readMultiset(BindingGetResultSetContext<?> ctx, DataType<R> type) throws SQLException {
             return DefaultResultBinding.readMultiset(ctx, (AbstractRow<R>) type.getRow(), type.getType(),
+
+                // [#12930] Tricky to patch a byte[]. We're patching it in JSONReader, instead
                 b -> b,
                 s -> s.startsWith("[") || s.startsWith("{") ? "[" + s + "]" : s,
                 s -> s.startsWith("<") ? "<result>" + s + "</result>" : s
diff --git a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/JSONReader.java b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/JSONReader.java
index a6518d517e..bcbb7a0a5e 100644
--- a/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/JSONReader.java
+++ b/jOOQ/src/main/java/org/jooq/impl/JSONReader.java
@@ -51,13 +51,12 @@ import static org.jooq.tools.StringUtils.defaultIfBlank;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
 
-import jakarta.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;
-
 import org.jooq.DSLContext;
 import org.jooq.Field;
 import org.jooq.Fields;
@@ -66,6 +65,8 @@ import org.jooq.Result;
 import org.jooq.tools.json.ContainerFactory;
 import org.jooq.tools.json.JSONParser;
 
+import jakarta.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;
+
 /**
  * A very simple JSON reader based on Simple JSON.
  *
@@ -154,6 +155,14 @@ final class JSONReader<R extends Record> {
             result = new ResultImpl<>(ctx.configuration(), actualRow);
 
         if (records != null) {
+
+            // [#12930] Nested ROW emulations can produce scalar values
+            //          when they're of degree 1. This is patched
+            if (!records.isEmpty()
+                    && !(records.get(0) instanceof Map)
+                    && !(records.get(0) instanceof List))
+                records = asList(records);
+
             for (Object o3 : records) {
                 if (o3 instanceof Map) {
                     Map<String, Object> record = (Map<String, Object>) o3;