diff --git a/src/cmd/compile/internal/ssagen/ssa.go b/src/cmd/compile/internal/ssagen/ssa.go
index 77a350720f..a64901305f 100644
--- a/src/cmd/compile/internal/ssagen/ssa.go
+++ b/src/cmd/compile/internal/ssagen/ssa.go
@@ -3014,7 +3014,8 @@ func (s *state) expr(n ir.Node) *ssa.Value {
 					z := s.constInt(types.Types[types.TINT], 0)
 					s.boundsCheck(z, z, ssa.BoundsIndex, false)
 					// The return value won't be live, return junk.
-					return s.newValue0(ssa.OpUnknown, n.Type())
+					// But not quite junk, in case bounds checks are turned off. See issue 48092.
+					return s.zeroVal(n.Type())
 				}
 				len := s.constInt(types.Types[types.TINT], bound)
 				s.boundsCheck(i, len, ssa.BoundsIndex, n.Bounded()) // checks i == 0
diff --git a/test/fixedbugs/issue48092.go b/test/fixedbugs/issue48092.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..47b812c8d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixedbugs/issue48092.go
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+// compile -B
+
+// Copyright 2021 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+// Make sure that we can at least compile this code
+// successfully with -B. We can't ever produce the right
+// answer at runtime with -B, as the access must panic.
+
+package p
+
+type A [0]byte
+
+func (a *A) Get(i int) byte {
+	return a[i]
+}