diff --git a/libs/pbd/pbd/spinlock.h b/libs/pbd/pbd/spinlock.h
index 69b76ce820..6fafeb0f78 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/pbd/spinlock.h
+++ b/libs/pbd/pbd/spinlock.h
@@ -32,17 +32,10 @@ namespace PBD {
  *
  * initialize with BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT
  */
-#ifdef COMPILER_MSVC
-private:
-	static boost::detail::spinlock sl_init = BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT;
-# define SPINLOCK_INIT sl_init
-#else
-# define SPINLOCK_INIT BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT
-#endif
 
 struct spinlock_t {
 public:
-	spinlock_t () : l (SPINLOCK_INIT) {};
+	spinlock_t ();
 	void lock () { l.lock (); }
 	void unlock () { l.unlock (); }
 	bool try_lock () { return l.try_lock (); }
@@ -50,8 +43,6 @@ private:
 	boost::detail::spinlock l;
 };
 
-#undef SPINLOCK_INIT
-
 /* RAII wrapper */
 class LIBPBD_API SpinLock {
 
diff --git a/libs/pbd/spinlock.cc b/libs/pbd/spinlock.cc
index 5892c2dd9c..4dfc8132ff 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/spinlock.cc
+++ b/libs/pbd/spinlock.cc
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@
 
 using namespace PBD;
 
+spinlock_t::spinlock_t ()
+{
+	l = BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT;
+}
+
 SpinLock::SpinLock (spinlock_t& lock)
 	: _lock (lock)
 {