diff --git a/distributed/protocol/core.py b/distributed/protocol/core.py
index 24e980351d0..9947d5c8869 100644
--- a/distributed/protocol/core.py
+++ b/distributed/protocol/core.py
@@ -2,8 +2,6 @@
 
 import logging
 
-import msgpack
-
 try:
     from cytoolz import get_in
 except ImportError:
@@ -15,6 +13,8 @@
 from .utils import frame_split_size, merge_frames
 from ..utils import nbytes
 
+from . import msgpack
+
 _deserialize = deserialize
 
 
diff --git a/distributed/protocol/msgpack.py b/distributed/protocol/msgpack.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b5ec47b3645
--- /dev/null
+++ b/distributed/protocol/msgpack.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+from __future__ import print_function, division, absolute_import
+
+from functools import partial
+
+import msgpack
+
+_MSGPACK_EXT_TUPLE = 0
+_MSGPACK_EXT_SET = 1
+_MSGPACK_EXT_FROZENSET = 2
+
+
+def _msgpack_default(o):
+    """ Default handler to allow encoding some other collection types correctly
+
+    """
+    if isinstance(o, (tuple, set, frozenset)):
+        payload = msgpack.packb(
+            list(o), strict_types=True, use_bin_type=True, default=_msgpack_default)
+        if isinstance(o, tuple):
+            ext_type = _MSGPACK_EXT_TUPLE
+        elif isinstance(o, frozenset):
+            ext_type = _MSGPACK_EXT_FROZENSET
+        elif isinstance(o, set):
+            ext_type = _MSGPACK_EXT_SET
+        else:
+            raise TypeError("Unknown type %s" % type(o))
+        return msgpack.ExtType(ext_type, payload)
+    else:
+        raise TypeError("Unknown type %s for %s" % (repr(o), type(o)))
+
+
+def _msgpack_ext_hook(code, payload):
+    if code in {_MSGPACK_EXT_TUPLE, _MSGPACK_EXT_SET, _MSGPACK_EXT_FROZENSET}:
+        l = msgpack.unpackb(payload, encoding='utf-8', ext_hook=_msgpack_ext_hook)
+        if code == _MSGPACK_EXT_TUPLE:
+            return tuple(l)
+        elif code == _MSGPACK_EXT_SET:
+            return set(l)
+        elif code == _MSGPACK_EXT_FROZENSET:
+            return frozenset(l)
+    raise ValueError("Unknown Ext code %s, payload: %s" % (code, payload))
+
+
+# msgpack's non-strict mode automatically treats tuple as a list which bypasses our default
+dumps = partial(msgpack.dumps, default=_msgpack_default, strict_types=True)
+loads = partial(msgpack.loads, ext_hook=_msgpack_ext_hook)
diff --git a/distributed/protocol/serialize.py b/distributed/protocol/serialize.py
index 4e397abee1a..9ce3207ddc1 100644
--- a/distributed/protocol/serialize.py
+++ b/distributed/protocol/serialize.py
@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@
 import traceback
 
 from dask.base import normalize_token
+
 try:
     from cytoolz import valmap, get_in
 except ImportError:
     from toolz import valmap, get_in
 
-import msgpack
-
+from . import msgpack
 from . import pickle
 from ..compatibility import PY2
 from .compression import maybe_compress, decompress
diff --git a/distributed/protocol/tests/test_serialize.py b/distributed/protocol/tests/test_serialize.py
index bc75082c350..f1f186f2137 100644
--- a/distributed/protocol/tests/test_serialize.py
+++ b/distributed/protocol/tests/test_serialize.py
@@ -178,6 +178,14 @@ def test_serialize_bytes():
         assert str(x) == str(y)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('val', [tuple([1, 2]), set([1,2]), frozenset([1,2])])
+def test_serialize_msgpack(val):
+    from distributed.protocol.msgpack import loads, dumps
+    res = loads(dumps(val))
+    assert type(res) == type(val)
+    assert res == val
+
+
 def test_serialize_list_compress():
     pytest.importorskip('lz4')
     x = np.ones(1000000)