yea id say so Louis Johnson of the Johnson brothers is probably one of the nastiest slappers ever and he used a P.
^^^^+10000000000000000000000....................... Also, brialliantly done, most original way i've seen yet!
While I'm a huge fan of the P, I don't recommend them for slapping. I'm not saying that you can't. I'm just saying that if you do, it's decidedly old school and very retro - Not the slap sound that we're accustomed to hearing.
Slapped P-basses sound fantastic! But as noted, they don't have the typical (overdone? ) J-bass slap-sound. So, if you want to maximize your marketability, then you're possibly better off playing a PJ bass, or owning both P and J basses. My current #1 bass has just the one P pickup, and sounds great for slap. But I own another bass that does J-bass sounds. If a bandleader ever requested the J-bass slap sound, then I would oblige.
I must add my .02 cents... my Squier P-bass sounds AWESOME slapped.. but my fender really doesn't have the.. "Thud" I guess that you need.
String spacing @ the bridge is a bit tight an alot of P's, some players appreciate a bit more space, I'm one of them. The tone is fine. The "typical expected" tone is also associated with players from the past so many consider it more "old school", but I think a P, set-up with slapping in mind can get pretty gnarly indeed!!
Just wanted to further mess with people and quote this. And say that it's a marvelously sarcastic way to point out the search function. Brilliant.