diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/string/StringEncoder.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/string/StringEncoder.java
index 55212706f1..12edc3fd8f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/string/StringEncoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/string/StringEncoder.java
@@ -93,6 +93,6 @@ public class StringEncoder extends OneToOneEncoder {
         if (!(msg instanceof String)) {
             return msg;
         }
-        return copiedBuffer(String.valueOf(msg), charsetName);
+        return copiedBuffer((String) msg, charsetName);
     }
 }